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Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue May 09, 2006 12:06 pm

If the crab falls out of its shell and the abdomen is attached ( the soft long piece that is usually inside the shell) then it means she has gone to off to Hermie heaven. Also when the abdomen falls out that is when you get the really bad smell. My dead crab sat their for days and did not smell until I picked him up and whee it was bad. If there is no abdomen and just a hollow head with legs then you have an exo (yeahhhh) In which case crabbie is inside shell hiding. Then I would place the crab back in front of the exo and leave it alone. If the exo is already off you will not do the crab any harm by checking on it because once the exo is shed the hardest part of the molt process is over. Good luck let us know what you find.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue May 09, 2006 12:17 pm

Thank you! She didnâ€™t fall all the way out, so I guess we wouldnâ€™t have known. Tonight Iâ€™ll check on her. I was too afraid to really pick her up and look at her incase it hurt her. I hope sheâ€™s okay, though I have a feeling she might not be

btw - I'm not really able to tell the sex of my crabs, I just decide when I name them. My male hamster has a female name, my female cat has a male name (though I didn't name the cat, the humane society did) Our pets seem to have odd names...

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue May 09, 2006 12:34 pm

OK let me know how she is after you see her tonight. To tell the sex of your crabs you can look under them when they are climbing around. On the second pair of walking legs the last segment that is attached to the head there are two small holes if it's a female and none if it is a male. If you see the first set of holes you will know what to look for so check out your biggest crabs first as the holes are easiest to spot on them. Yeah I have some crabs that are female with male names and visa versa the crabs don't care though.

Here are some pics to help you out:
http://hermitcrabassociation.com/galler ... p?album=22[/url]

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue May 09, 2006 12:51 pm

Wow! Thanks for the pictures, I don't know if my crabs would stay out that far for long enough so that I could look. I'll try my best though because it would be quite interesting to know!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed May 10, 2006 8:36 am

Last night we picked up Clawdia, she still wouldn't fall out of her shell all the way, but she fell out enough so that I could get a flashlight and look into her shell. I noticed her abdomen was molded

My husband and I both have quite the cold, so we enlisted our son to take a smell, and he said it was horrible. We brought her outside and pulled her the rest of the way out of the shell. He entire abdomen was covered in mold, so she's been dead this whole time. She's the first hermit crab loss we've had. We didn't burry her because we're moving this summer. She's in the shed in a container until we go to our new house this weekend. We'll burry her there. Thank you for all your help! I don't know how long we would have let her sit there....

We set up the new tank for Godzilla's isolation, he really loves it. He doesn't look like he's planning on going under any time soon. On top of that, I made it in and out of a pet store without a new crab! I really want to get another PP if I get anything, since we only have Oddish. I can't seem to find them...

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed May 10, 2006 8:57 am

Oh, Beckers... I'm sorry about Clawdia...

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed May 10, 2006 9:17 am

Thanks. I feel bad because I feel like it was our fault. The conditions werenâ€™t as humid as they could have been when we first got her.