Not eating exoskeleton

[HermitCrabCHICA]

I am about out clean out the tank should I collect the little pieces and put them back in when I am done? ( exo is not in one piece it is scattered around the little container. ) it looks gross eeeewwww.

[CrabbyLover77]

Are any of your crabs buried? If so, you can't do a substrate change and disturb them. If they are all up, you can go ahead and change to the sand/ee mix. Make sure it's sand castle consistency. If you squeeze it and it holds it's shape, perfect. If it's dripping, it's too wet, add more dry sub and try squeezing again. Do you have any calcium sources available for your crabs? If not, I'd recommend gathering up as much of the exo as you can until you can get cuttlebone, calcium powder, eggshells, crab/lobster exo, etc (I buy crab exo in bulk and my guys love it).

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[HermitCrabCHICA]

Ok thankyou!

[CrabbyLover77]

No problemo!

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[curlysister]

I agree with CL77, a thermometer and hygrometer are essential.
In reading another one of your posts, you said that your crab 'went back into' his original shell. Crabs do not leave their shell to molt. A crab drops it's shell when it is too weak to carry it. If your crab is ever naked, it is an emergency.

[HermitCrabCHICA]

Um say what now? Here is how it went..... One day I see my hermit crabs shell empty I assume she/he is molting. A couple weeks later shell was moved. I picked up the shell and when I looked inside I saw Kelpcake. She shrunk somehow? And she chose the same shell for some weird reason. At first I thought it was a different crab? Yah I know that was stupid. I go to see if Crab is still underground. (Yes I know very stupid.) I saw exo and I thought it was dead crab. I re-bury it then do some research I figured out it was the exo so I got a small container scooped the exo in there and placed Kelpcake in there. I saw Kelpcake on top of exo I think she was nibbling on it. She was trying to get out of container so I set her outside. She moved far away from the exo and I was then concerned about her not eating the exo so I came to HCA for advice. So what? I don't get it? Hermit crab naked? Huh? I Dont know what i did! I don't know what happened. Please help me understand what happened.

[Hermielover121]

First off, crabs do not leave there shell to molt like curly said previously. I am not sure by what you mean by the crab shrunk, do you mean it looks smaller? Also never dig for your crabs unless there is an emergency like bacterial bloom or flood. Like curly said if your crab is acting normally I wouldn’t worry about isolating, how many crabs do you have in your tank and are any down molting? Just for future reference don’t rebury a crab because they will suffocate since humans cannot create the tunnels they do.

Edit: I was just reading some of your other posts and you mentioned that the crab looked like it shrunk after molting which is normal.

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[HermitCrabCHICA]

2 crabs none molting.