Hour long shell change (pics)

[Bubu]

*yawns* I've been standing by the tank, camera in hand, posed at one of my crabbies whose been trying to change into a new shell for over an hour now. His current shell has 2 holes in it and as soon as I put a new shell in the tank he went right for it. He spent a LONG time straightening it so he could slip into it, and finally got up the courage to go for it. But, when he tried to get into it, it was too small for him because his abdomen is bizarrely large! I have never seen such a large swollen looking abdomen like that before, I'll post pictures in a moment. I don't think the pics do it justice, it was very strange. So now he's sitting in his old shell looking defeated Okay here's his current shell, he started with only one hole, then fell off this waterfall repeatedly and put another one in it Sizing up the new shell: Falling over sideways: Okay here's the weird pics. I hope you can see how large his abdomen is compared to what a normal one looks like. If you look on the right side of it, there's something that I can only describe as looking like flat tentacles, see it? That's what really through me off, I have never seen anything like that before! I've seen a ton of shell changes, and this guy is just plain bizarre looking. Backside view:

[Guest]

Those appear to be pleopods on the crab's abdomen.Your "he" is most likely a "she!"