HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hello

I have not seen one of my crabs for about 3- 4 weeks and assume he must be down for a molt. A couple of days ago I found a small piece of his exo in the salt water dish and tonight I found two of his legs on the surface of the tank. Could the other crabs have taken some of his exo to the surfce of the tank? I'm not sure if i should panic and go digging for him to make sure one of the other crabs hasn't hurt him. The tank doesn't have any dead crab smell. I've had my crabs for about 7 months now and this is the first time i've seen any legs or exo in the tank. Thank you for any info.

Bren

Do you think he himself might of surfaced and brought some exo with him? That sounds like alot of leftovers, they usually eat all of it, so I think the other crabs have discovered his molting tunnel and might of hurt him. It's up to you, but I would dig.
Good luck!

Were you able to find him? I hope he's alright.

Hi Silver..yes..there were several more posts here a few days ago..the site was down for maintenance and when I checked back..they were all gone but these two..I'd replied that I did dig for him and all my crabs and all their limbs were present and accounted for. The crab I was worried about didn't seem to have molted, so they were old pieces of exo legs from a previous molt and a different crab. I was glad I did dig to the bottom of the tank, though..not just to ease my mind but because I found it was way too wet at the bottom from misting heavily..someone suggested I dig to the bottom where there were no crabs and put rolled up paper towels down there to soak up some of the water. One or two other people said they'd also found legs that their crabs hadn't eating after a molt... I guess that's the summary of what I remember..thanks very much for asking..all is well here.