Do Crabs Shed Their Abdomen When Molting?

Jedediah · Post by **Jedediah** » Sun Apr 16, 2006 7:26 am

When crabs molt, does that include the abdomen? I always assumed that it just grew and only the exo on the legs and thorax had to be shed. Now here is a great picture of an exo and there's stuff that looks like it's shed skin from the abdomen and I'm not so sure any more?

Willow · Post by **Willow** » Sun Apr 16, 2006 1:03 pm

I think there's a very thin skin that's shed from the abdomen? Anyway, I had a topside moulter once, and it did seem to have a really thin layer of skin from that area.

Nicole · Post by **Nicole** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 3:08 pm

I don't think it's solely the front of the crab that is shed. I had a few topside molts when I first got my crabs and if you look at the freshly molted exo there's definitely a soft stringy membrane attached.

Jedediah · Post by **Jedediah** » Mon Apr 17, 2006 7:47 pm

When insects molts, there are white strand of membrane that come from inside their exo, so it might be the same with crabs