HCA: Hermit Crab Association

oh my god please help me my crab hasn’t been doing well since we moved and now she’s out of he her shell from the stress of everything and the power outage i’m pumping her with humidity WHAT DO I DO

SHE JUST MOLTED NAKED

Gosh, to be honest, I'm going to tag @Wodesorel and @Soilentgringa on this one. I wouldn't want to risk causing deformities by picking this one up to reshell. I would try to use a large spoon to place crab into iso. Then make sure the iso is 80/80 heat and humidity. Put lots of moss for humidity. Put several shell options in there for the crab. Hopefully that works!

i did that to begin with, except i didn’t move her. she was already in a transport tank because my electricity hag gone out. thankfully it is on now. also it’s a surface molt, but she crawled under some moss.

my guess is she probably is cold.

i brought them somewhere that had electricity and then brought them back to the house that lost it because we regained it.

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You have to weigh the damage of being naked versus the damage of being picked up and reshelled. Both will cause deformities.

Personally, I have always reshelled freshly molted naked crabs. I've had it happen a few times with rescues. They feel like dough before it's been kneaded, it's an odd sensation. Be gentle, do not put any pressure on them, but get their butt into a shell as best you can. If they harden without a shell they may not fit in one after. The shell helps to shape their body.

i gave her a couple nudges and brought a shell a bit closer to her and she managed to reshell on her own. (i literally almost cried i was so happy) let’s hope she pulls through this. she pulled literally the dumbest move ever, i mean who surface molts completely naked?

anything i can do for her? and how should i treat her once she’s done with her exo?

It has to do with how much strength they have, those shells are extremely heavy and they take a lot of energy to move around. It also takes a lot of energy to molt. Sometimes they get stuck deciding wether moving or molting is the most important thing at that moment.

For a normal surface molt I recommend leaving them alone until they finish their exo, but given that she went naked and you can't be sure of the cause, I would recommend putting a small amount of honey and maybe coconut oil if you have it, close to her so she can supplement with some extra calories. You want foods that won't spoil or mold so you can go several days to a week without checking on her. Leaving her alone is key to keep her stress down and will give her the best chance.

Once she has finished her exo and is active and eating normal food, a dunk in the freshwater pool to rinse the molting smell off should be enough so that she can go back with the others.

she’s doing really well as of now! her exo looks like it’s gardening and she’s eating her old stuff!!!

my power went out again around 3 pm today... i had no choice but to move her and the rest of my crabs to my grandmother’s, and i sectioned her into a corner away from every body else. :/ i hope the stress doesn’t kill her

Cross your fingers and hope for the best.....

she’s completely better now! back in with her pals and climbing around!