HCA: Hermit Crab Association

just curious:
what happens to a coconut crab's abdomen when they drop their shell?
and why do they drop their shell?

thanks!

Mokulele_Hawai'i is the only one I can think of right now that has them, maybe if you PM to ask? She just posted pics in the pictures section with a new rescue coconut crab. Check it out
i think that after they get a certain size, they do not require the shell anymore, but I am really not sure

What I heard was that they just get so big that snails don't make shells big enough for them anymore! So once they can't find shells anymore, I guess that's when their abdomens harden up.

This is just guessing and pulling little bits of information out of my head from various sources that I've read at some point or another.

They grow an exo on their abdomen pretty quickly. Jumbo coconut crabs have already dropped the shell.