Woke up to naked crab.

jenok · Post by **jenok** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 7:06 am

Anybody (crabber85) make much since of this.One of my crabs that I've had since I started was up out of the sand this morning with no shell on. The tank condition seem to be normal with the humidity and temp where it should be. When I noticed I picked it up very carefully to check for any sore spots which I didn't see any. I think this is the one that I've watched the last few weeks digging around close to the front of the tank so sometimes I can see it under the sand through the glass. (Before that it was in the bottom corner for at least a month so I thought it was molting.) Sometimes it seemed to be stretching further out of its shell while digging then I thought it should be but the shell was still on. I didn't have any extra shells cuz all my crabs are down right now so I took the extras out. This morning I put some back in and a little while later I noticed the crab reshelled in one of these new shells I put in. My mom also said it seemed like maybe the shell got stuck between the water bowl and the back glass. However if that was the case I don't understand why it didn't just back up instead of leaving the shell. I didn't get a chance to check cuz by the time she said something I was leaving for work. I placed a towel over the tank so it would be dark and private cuz most of the hiding spots I took out since they kept tearing up the tank with all the digging.PS As I checked for sore spots it didn't seem to have any of the tell tell signs of molting so i'm unsure if it actually molted or not.

Crabber85 · Post by **Crabber85** » Thu Apr 23, 2015 6:23 am

My whole post just got erased so let me start over.... It sounds like the crab did an emergency ditch because the shell became lodged in a fashion that prevented it from moving forward, backwards, upwards or downwards.Hermitcrabs will abandon or ditch their shells for a few different reasons and you know and a weighted down or stuck shell is one of them.Under normal circumstances when a shelless crab surfaces it will quickly try to find a suitable replacement but because there were none present it had no option but to continue streaking.I've had this happen in the past where one crab would go down for some time and then re-emerge shelless and then quickly re-shell, I've not had this happen with my E's who are notorious for this knock on wood but my PP's have done this which makes it even weirder because they are not known for this behavior.

jenok · Post by **jenok** » Thu Apr 23, 2015 12:51 pm

I guess so. It had reshelled before I left and by the time I got home it had buried itself again. I tried looking around the water bowls but didn't see the shell mom was referring to but she does have problems seeing so it could've been something else. I even moved the first inch of sand looking. So who knows what actually happened. At least it reshelled. I don't think it touched any of the honey I had put in for it though, which normally they like. I'm waiting for them all to come up so I can move them into the new 20gal I got for Easter but I guess i'll be waiting awhile.