Naked crab during moult

[babyjady007]

I think my medium sized crab just moulted underneath his stone feeding dish. I lifted the dish and found him naked with his shell next to him, exoskeleton everywhere. Apparently my little crab was under there too because his shell's also there, but no crab inside and he's nowhere to be found. Did my moulting crab eat him? Btw, I didn't know I'd stress my moulter by lifting the feeder until I landed on this site; I actually lifted it twice and even took his shell from next to him to examine it (he got a bit defensive so I put it right back). Is it normal for my crab to be naked during a moult?

[Wai]

Yes, moulters sometimes leave their shells in the process. Are you sure your little hermit crab isn't buried elsewhere? Cannabalism may have occurred, but I would certainly stop disturbing the moulter so that he is not stressed any further.

[babyjady007]

Thanks so much Wai, I'll definitely leave him alone now. I hope he'll be ok.

[CrabbyJo]

He will probably be fine, but I'm sure you won't relax until you see him out and about behaving normally. It sounds like you didn't disturb him too awful much since you didn't pick him up or anything.

[babyjady007]

lol you're right, I was so worried the past couple days! all day yesterday I kept trying to peek through any available cracks whenever I passed the tank. Imagine how relieved I was this morning when I found Mr. Crabs (that's my moulter) in his water dish. He looked fine, no missing limbs or anything, but he's paler in color. Oh and lol, my baby crab's alive too, he stole Mr. Crabs' shell (way too big for him)! I guess that was why Mr crabs was naked for the past few days, he had to abandon his beloved shell for a different one today. I have a post-moult question; how do i know if he's had a healthy moult?

[emmac350]

If he's up and moving and has all of his body parts attached, it was healthy. If he's barely moving, his coloring doesn't return within a week or two, or has substrate embedded in his new exo, it wasn't.

[harleyucollins]

I was reading this and I have a question about the bad moulting. What can you do/what happens if there is a bad moult?

[CrabbyJo]

It really depends on the conditions that have occured - what the situation is that deems it a "bad molt".
I had a crab come up without one walking leg and without both is claws, and he was shell-less too. Not sure if he was harassed by another crab or if his molt was just a rough one. I hadn't had him very long, and he was an Equadorian, who are more inclined to have a rough molt than the PP's.

In his case, I made sure he had some shells to choose from - and he did move into a shell that was too big for him, but without a claw to close things up, all you could see were his three legs just barely showing inside the shell. I put him into iso so he wouldn't be disturbed. This was only a small tupperware container with two plastic tea bottle caps (a little bigger than soda bottle caps) for fresh and ocean salt water, then a plastic soda bottle cap for food. I put in about an inch or two of EE substrate.
I crushed his food as finely as I could as he had no pincers to do this for himself. I daily fed him dry food mixes that contained proteins (such as mealworms or freezedried shrimp), seaweed, and other healthy ingredients (the mixes were for sick crabs or post molt crabs). I also made sure he daily had fresh mashed fruit and veggies, as well as a bit of honey for extra energy. My thinking was that he could use his leg tips to pick up bits of food that would stick to them and bring that to his mouth, or he could even put his mouth parts down into the dish to eat, which it seems he did do. I made sure he had some gooey foods that would stick, like mashed banana or strawberry and honey.

I set him up with a larger fresh water bowl since he kept draining the other and filling it with EE, and he propped himself in the middle of this bowl with the hole of his shell facing upward. Since he didn't seem to have much strength, I put the cocohut over him hoping it would help him relax.

When he started showing a desire to dig, I set him up in my 10 gallon iso (which I was letting air out, my EE gets a wierd smell when I wet it down so I was letting it lose the smell which took a few days). he buried down and molted, and 3 weeks later he came up with the cutest claws, they were about half the size they should have been, but he was whole - had all 4 walking legs and his claws!
So 3 weeks after he came up without his pincers and leg, he went back down and molted, taking 3 more weeks.

That's my story, and I know Marie has some of her own, of crab's she's had to nurse back to health. it can be even more extreme - a crab coming up with no limbs at all, and there is a story of a crab just like that surviving with lots of tlc.

[ladybug15057]

There are some who do have molts that the hermie has had problems removing certain body parts from their old exo's. The molts I have had to nurse back to health was due to surprise molts in the main tank and they were mutilated by their tank mates. (yes, they are provided with a proper diet, but on rare occasions this does happen)
A crabber can help nurse a hermie, but the actual molt is something the hermie has to do himself.