crusty white crab came up

[Guest]

3 crabs have been burried for a couple of weeks. One of the E's is up today, but he is crusty white all over. He's also in a new shell and the one he went down in must still be underground. He is parked in one place near the saltwater bathing pool, but is kinda moving his body around and his feelers are bobbing normally. I haven't touched him, but I don't know what to think of it. I've only had two molts and those were surface molts.
Why would he leave his shell underground? If he had molted, he would be brighter, right?

[HERMEZ]

can u take a pic? maybe the exo was hard to shed and its sticking to him??

[Guest]

OMG! Now you have me terrified! I get lunch break in a couple of hours. I'll run home and get my camera and try to post some shots.

[HERMEZ]

do not be terrified I am just trying to help solve the puzzle its all speculation at this point

[Guest]

He's quite active now. All but one crab is underground so I don't feel that it is necessary to iso him. Tonka is also active, but seems to be ignoring Tumbler and I should be able to watch their behavior most of the day. I can iso if I think something could pose a danger to him.

[HERMEZ]

thats good to know--get the pics so we can take a gander at what is going on and try to be clear and get one real close up if possible. I had one who's exo did not come off right so I might be able to tell if it looks like that--you might have a whole new thing here for us to learn

[Guest]

I could even take one shot side-by-side w/ the normal E. I'll be leaving work soon, so hopefully I will have the pictures taken and posted in a couple of hours. I am at work now, so I've got to take care of that too.

[Guest]

Definitely freshly molted. I took him out for some camera shots and noticed loooooong black fingernails. Looks like his legs have some dents. This is the best I could do w/ my camera and he was refusing to pose:
http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/4522 ... lt14ev.jpg
http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/2500 ... lt27uz.jpg

[HERMEZ]

cant tell with those pics, the other crab came out good. almost looks like mold--but you say its crusty.....is his exo hard all the way yet? all i can say is try to get some better shots...does he have any black on him like a bruising?

how about prior molt pics too-any of those?

[Guest]

This is my first E molt and I've only had my camera for a short time. Not mold. It looks like white powder and he is kinda peach colored. I didn't see any areas that had other colors like bruising. His peach powdered coloring seemed uniform and I got a good look at him before he got camera shy.

[Guest]

here's his premolt shot (kinda blurry):
http://img455.imageshack.us/img455/6136 ... and8df.jpg

[HERMEZ]

mold was really not an option just what it looked like to me from that pic.....hopefully you can get more

what a handsome fella though!

[Guest]

Someone on another site mentioned that Es sometimes appear to be light colored immediately after molting and then darken up w/ some exposure to the sun. Hmmmm. . . . Anyone else think this is normal for Es?

[HERMEZ]

all crabs darken up....but you say crust so that is another issue IMHO-I have had lots of E's and what you are seeing is probably not normal....its gonna drive me crazy til you can take more

[Guest]

Tumbler was naked and shell shopping this morning. He went into a shell in just a minute or two after I spooked him. There is a large crater where he surfaced and another abandoned shell is burried there. His color looks a bit better, but his legs aren't smooth looking, more rough and gritty. But again his activity is normal and he is fully mobile, feelers waving.