Difference between dropped leg and exo?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 10:04 am

i just found a leg in my tank, it's missing the last joint that the crabs walk on. it looks like it came from my crab Sebastian because it has the same colouring as he does. i dont think it could be from my other two crabs because kish is a different colour and too big, and zero is too small. i checked Sebastian and he has all his walking legs, so i'm not sure what or whose leg this is. i found it sticking upwards out of the sand and it wasnt there last night

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 10:06 am

I also found a random exo leg in my tank. I don't know what causes it... maybe crabs have moulted with out our knowledge, and not eaten that part. I really have no idea, but I too have found that before, and all my crabs are fine so its probably not dangerous.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 10:11 am

to add to this, i was looking under the tank to see if it couls perhaps be zero's leg, as he went down for a molt a couple weeks ago, well i'm not sure if it's his, but i do know that he did not survive his molt. i just found him, inside his shell, but he's all orangey red and covered in mould(not like sporeish mold but mold that looks like spiderwebs, and he doesnt stink at all, so i thought he was still alive. was there something i could have done? sebastian molted perfectly when i left him alone so i thought by doing the same with zero it would work the same way

Gorthaur · Post by **Gorthaur** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 5:28 pm

There's a very easy way to tell the difference between a leg and an exo leg. An exo leg is hollow - if you look at the end there won't be any flesh inside it, and it will always crush if you use enough pressure. An actual leg won't crush, but it may break, and just as a dead crab smells like rotten fish, a leg will too.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 8:11 pm

thanks for the clarification. i still dont know whose leg it is, but it doesnt seem to matter really because both of my crabs have all legs, maybe it was dropped and re-grown back during sebastian's molt?

on a good note, finding the leg prompted me to search for zero, which in turn led me to his body. that's not a good thing, finding a dead crab, but at least i found him before it dirtied the whole tank up. i'm picking up play sand tomorrow to do a deep clean, since these guys seems to have recently molted, i dont think i'll have to worry about that for a while