HCA: Hermit Crab Association

So I've written about my elecuidorian crab in previous posts. She hasn't been eating or coming out of her hut. I found her this morning and she fell out out of her shell!! Idk if she was attacked or if she's molting or what but she's too weak to even move. What do I do?!?!?

The not eating and staying in the hut isn't too concerning and sounds more like normal crab behavior. Is this crab new by any chance? You said the crab has fallen out of the shell, does it look like this? http://hermitcrabassociation.com/phpBB/ ... lt#p756716 Thats what a surface molt looks like. If the crab was dead it'd look a like this but, his amdomen would also kinda hang out along with the rest of the crab.

Yes that is how she looks...I guess some part of her abdomen is still inside of the shell but very little. She is still under her coco hut with a huge botter protecting her from my two purple pinches...I'm afraid that is all I can do at the moment as I don't have enough resources to set up my new tank to isolate her in her own tank. At this point what should I do? Is there anything I can do?

Just leave her alone right now. If you can, try to make it dark where she is, because darkness stimulates molting if that is what she is trying to do. Make sure she also has access to fresh and salt water, and food. Maybe put some honey on a Q-tip and roll it in a source of calcium, like cuttlebone or crushed egg shells, and put it near her, honey will provide her energy and calcium will help harden her exoskeleton if she is molting.

Good luck,
Bonnie

She is under a bottle right now so I'll have to put water and food in an eggshell...the way it is now she doesn't have access to anything because I'm trying to keep the others away from her. Its only a 10 gallon tank.

She will be ok the way she is now. She will need time to molt, harden, and eat her exo. The honey for energy will be more than enough food for now. Wait until you see her moving around to offer her water and more food. Try not to handle her unless absolutely necessary.


Crabbers unite!!!

This is my first molt...do they change color when they molt?

backwoodsbrit10 wrote:This is my first molt...do they change color when they molt?

After the exo hardens they may be a slightly diffrent color.

Mine did BUT they are young Es. One went from nearly lavender to tan and orange with orange on his eyestalks. The other was pale blue and is getting orange and brown in his legs.


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Mine have generally gotten a little darker with each molt, especially my bigger guys. It makes it really hard for me to ID some of them when I try to compare them to pics I had taken before a molt.

I just witnessed my biggest crab picking on my other purple pincher...my fiance separated the two but now I'm beginning to wonder if my Ecuadorian is really molting or dying? The night before I saw her out of her shell my bully purple pincher was in her hut pushing her around. I'm wondering if maybe he was picking on her too. The purple pincher (my original crab) also got into it with this crab and I'm wondering if that was the cause for his limbs fallibg off and eventual death. I don't want to take chances so I think I might take the problem crab back to petco in the morning.

What were they doing? My crabs shove each other, climb over each other, antennae whip each other (beat down style) all the time. I will only intervene if one tears a limb off another, or if one is running away and the other is chasing and grabbing.


Crabbers unite!!!

They have gotten along fine before but all of a sudden the bigger pp was standing in the entrance of the hut and the smaller pp wanted to enter. The bigger one initiated a feeler fight and the smaller tried to enter and the bigger lurched towards the smaller one and knocked him over. This happened twice before the smaller one walked away. A few minutes later both crabs were in the hut in close quarters and thats when my fiance separated them because I didn't want ro take any chances. They were buddies before..and shared the hut. Now the smaller one is hiding next to the other hut in the corner. I don't think he's injured but I'm not 100% sure..

It doesn't sound alarming at this point. Tense, yes. But not something to lose sleep over. They are wild animals and there will be various displays of dominance and natural aggression that crabs need to exhibit. Babysit the surface molter, but the other two could just be playing rough. Wait to see if one either chirps or retreats, or is trying to get away but can't.


Crabbers unite!!!

I was just reading this thread when I looked up and my crabs were going at it, lol.