papa

[crabby1]

Ok, I'm a little concerned about my biggest hermit crab PAPA. He's about the size of a tennis ball I've had him since early July. He use to also come out every night and for a while there seemed like my healthiest crab. When I set up the larger tank the smallest of my 6 ATHENA went down to molt and then came back up 3 1/2 later. After she was down for about a week all three of my med crabs went down the same day, so both of my largest were in there long tube hanging out almost like watching and guarding all 4 molters. Like I said the littlest ATHENA came back up and the second to largest "RED" went down in ATHENA'S ( the smallest one) molting cave. PAPA disappeared for a minute to try and go Down next to RED, but came back up ( I'm thinking because there wasn't enough room).Poor PAPA it seems like he barely comes out of his hollowed out log. He did last night and he's now just sitting in top of it even though its morning here and the sun is almost completely out. I'm worried I am going to set up my new tat as soon as my friend comes to help me move it. Scared for PAPA. Every time I've had a instinct it's turned out to be right. I had RED and him in ISO (cause I didn't want to rip either out of their tube, and kept them there for a night but on second thought I was worried that they were getting stressed out and that would hurt them more. IDK what to do!

[Crabber85]

@crabby1, being that PAPA is so large he shouldn't be molting more frequently than once a year to every year and half and for Jumbos and Jumbos+ the actual molting process usually take three to six months depending on need for molt and the overall health conditions of the crab in question.

Hermitcrabs who have had to postpone molting due to lack of proper molting conditions will be at a higher need for molt than those who have had the opportunity to molt on a regular basis and that higher need often times results in longer molt times because the crab is weaker from postponing the molt it needs longer to recover.

Since hermitcrabs don't share molt pockets due to safety risks its unlikely that PAPA was trying to share a molt pocket instead he and the other crab likely smelled where the other smaller crab had been and went to investigate to see if any old exo was left behind to munch on.

How long has it been since PAPA last molted with you?