HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hi everyone, I just wanted to share with you pictures of one of my PPs who just recently came up from a molt. Something apparently went wrong/disturbed him, because as you can see his big pincher is deformed. It does not seem to be bothering him and he seems to get along well as it is, so I am not too worried about him- I'm hoping the problem will resolve with subsequent molts. All of his other legs and little pincer are normal.

Yeah it definitely looks like a molt deformity and as long as it doesn't seem to be bothering the crab it should be fine.Don't be surprised if the crab goes back down to molt again in the next several days.I've had a couple different crabs do this and basically the injury/deformity is typically caused by the crab not being able to completely shed the old outer layer fast enough so it ends up being fused back into the new layer as the crab re-hardens.

He is eating and moving around normally, so I'm taking that as a good sign. I think you're right about him thinking of going back down soon... he has been quite the little piggy lately

@Kharasmatic, a heavy appetite is definitely a good sign and the fact that the crab is eating so much is a good indication to me that he may go back down in the next week or two.

I adopted a pp once that had a large pincher that looked as though another crab had grabbed a hold of it while it was still soft and mashed it. It molted and no indication of a deformity was visible. Yes Crabber85, I could see how unshed exo could cause this.