HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Was wondering what everyone's first molt was like for them....I'd love to hear them!!Well, here's my first experience:When we first got our very first two hermies (almost 7 years ago), we knew NOTHING about them...i have to admit i bought them for my son, because he thought they were "cute"...(little did i know what i was getting myself into)...Anyway, my first molt was a topside molt...i had no clue that hermit crabs molted!!...so when i walked into my son's room to clean up, i happened to glance up at the hermit tank...there was "George" hanging out of his shell...what i know now was his old exo hanging out, then i thought it was George, dead, hanging out of his shell!!!...my heart sank, because it was my son's favorite hermie...so i had to break the news to him...(it would have been his first "death" experience in our family)...i called him into the room and sat him down...i told him that George had passed away and was in hermie heaven...(my son was 4 at the time)...instantly his dark brown eyes starting to well up with tears...as he cried he said he loved George so much, that he wanted to see him....So we walked over to the tank and i gently picked him up in my hand to show my son...my son was hysterically crying at this point...then all of a sudden, George's "dead body" moved!!!...thats when his old exo fell out but i thought it was George falling out...i screamed and so did my son...then i peeked into the shell and saw this little tiny hermie with a fresh pink exo!!!...i yelled, "GEORGE IS ALIVE!!!"...and my son was now crying and laughing at the same time!!...i quickly put George back in the tank with his old exo...that night is when i researched online about hermies and then eventually found this site...George lived for another 1 1/2 years...we loved George...he was the tiniest hermie we had, but a tough little hermie...(sorry this is so long, but thought i'd share)

Ah! What a sweet story. Glad it worked out so well for George. I wonder how many people dispose of their "dead" crabs without realizing what happened.My first molt was with a teeny named TinyBabette. He truly was tiny--smaller than a dime. I wasn't too worried because everyone said that teenies don't have as hard a time as jumbos and sometimes the whole thing was over in a matter of hours. So what's the big deal right? I did at least put TB in iso. It was the first time an iso was used and I was so impressed with myself. I did good the first 24 hours or so. But then I kept thinking about photos I have seen of various stages of molts. Someone had to have handled the crabs to take the pictures I had seen. So I thought, I can check on TB and see how he's doing. He is just a little guy he's probably not stressed at all. I'm ashamed to admit it but yes, I dug him up. Not only once but 12 hours later just to check his progress. Needless to say that TinyBabette was my first loss and a very hard lesson for me. That was about five years ago and I haven't done it since so I guess TB paid the ultimate price in teaching me a lesson. I wonder how big he'd be now.

Aw, Kitty, that's such a sad molt story. My first molt was a topside in January of 2004. I was using KKs for ISOs at that point, and it was hard to maintain the sandcastle consistency in them as opposed to a tank. Anyway, Toni kept digging down and having her tunnel collapse, so one night she just came up and sat in the sand. When I went to check on her the next morning, she looked really weird and slumpy. Dumb me (duh!), I picked her up and it looked as if she was falling out of her shell. I thought, oh great, she's dying. So I called the kids (much like your story, jojo7!) and told them that Toni was dying and to say goodbye to her. Then my oldest son said, "Mom, what's she doing?" For about 10 minutes we sat and watched Toni actually molt and push off the old exo. My son was even late to school that day, but we've never seen a molt before or after that day. It was truly fsacinating. We still have Toni, even after putting her through all that.

My 3rd hermie, Bandit, was bought in Ocean City, MD. I came back from going to see Monsters Inc on ice, and saw his body lieing still. I was heartbroken.<br>The next morning, I was getting ready for school, and gently went to pick Bandit up to show him to my mom, and then, I saw a tiny claw behind his "corpse". I screamed, "Mom!!! Bandit molted!!!"<br>Unfortunately, me died soon after. I miss him.

My crab molted right after we got them and I didn't know a thing about hermit crabs, I thought they were dead and my parents almost through them out! But luckly we realised that my crab had molted!

I had 5 crabs "dig in" all at once. I moved them to a molting tank(which I don't bother with anymore) and they all dug thamselves to the bottom of 6 inches of sand. THen I waited...and waited...and waited...and waited...Finally the first one came up and I was so excited! Perfect coloring, little black tips, and new legs! It's still just as exciting to see them come up perfect after damaging themselves while playing on their toys.

As soon as I brought my first two hermies into the house, I hopped onto the computer for some very extensive hermie research. Im SO glad I di because I didnt know they were such high-maintenance. Luckily, I had read up on molting and knew what was happening. I just didnt know how bloody long it takes. Forrest was down for 3 months, and the very morning before I was going to dig him up, he showed up! Yay!

I had already joined this forum and after much reading prepared an iso with 6 inches of sandcastle-consistency playsand for Marvin. He immediately started digging and disappeared in no time. Then the waiting began. Around that time there was much discussion about substrate choices and the possibility of collapsing sand, and the thought of Marvin suffocating terrified me. So I made the gutsy decision to remove some of the sand from iso (6 inches is way too much for such a little guy, I'm thinking). It took me hours to gently lift, one spoonful at a time, half the sand out of the iso tank and locate where exactly Marvin was, and determine he was o.k. afterall. I didn't exactly dig him up - just excavated every grain of sand that was on top of him. Anyway I later discovered Marvin loved digging more than anything and at least half the time we waited for him to molt, he was just digging. But he molted fine and spawned a whole tank-round of molts soon to follow. (His second molt was when we lost him ). r.i.p., Marvin...

Lol. My very first molt experience was today! I accidentally dug him up (doing the deep clean), but he seems to be doing just fine. Everything but his bp (the exo!) is gone. He's moving around and everything too! He's a VERY lovely shade of light pink right now. Even pics don't really show how pretty pink they are after molting! (at least the pp's anyway). *glee*