# Dead hermit crab?



## christine (Jun 13, 2009)

i found the remains of what i thought was my one & only blue hermit crab, it had blue legs full grown & it was out of it's shell & dead. Then i noticed my hermit crab was on the rocks & doing fine. Anyone know what it could be?

Christine


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## KnaveTO (May 13, 2007)

Probably a moulting.


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

Moulting. I have 5 they scare the crud out of me all the time doing that.


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## conix67 (Jul 27, 2008)

Yeah what you saw is a molt.. it doesn't look much like a molt at first, and looks like something kicked it out of shell and died.. hermits leave an exact copy of itself after molt..


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## aquanutt (Aug 27, 2010)

conix67 said:


> Yeah what you saw is a molt.. it doesn't look much like a molt at first, and looks like something kicked it out of shell and died.. hermits leave an exact copy of itself after molt..


No way,
this is amazing.... 
do you supposed to remove the copy out of the tank? Is it bad for water quality?

thanks
sly


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## KeMo (Sep 3, 2010)

I just leave mine. They get eaten by the pods and stuff within a day or two. 
Free food.


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## 50seven (Feb 14, 2010)

Yeah, I got freaked out a couple days ago when I thought I saw a dead hermit. Cleaned up the remains, but couldn't tell if it was the crab or just his shell. Anyway, I see one of my crabs looks much bigger than before and is toting about a new bigger shell, so I guess that's what it is. I counted 8 out of 9 crabs in the tank this evening, and usually they are all over in various hidey holes, so I suppose my population is still going strong... om nom nom detrius...


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## harana (Jul 9, 2010)

This happens to me all the time with my Coral Banded Shrimp. An exact replica laying 'dead' on the sandbed. He just molted the other day and TOTALLY regew a complete arm (large one) that he had lost in an unforunate netting accident ;-)


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## Big Ray (Dec 8, 2009)

the molted skin actually contains only the outer shell, which is composed of mostly Iodine, so leaving it in tank will just get it dissolved back into water column, which can help flourish some corals, (blues) and or help the shrimp/crab rebuild its new shell (which is agian composed of iodine) in case Iodine is limiting in your tank!

so its best to leave it in.

I have seen fish and over pods and ... eat stuff from it as well.


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## Kweli (Jun 2, 2010)

I saw my pom pom crab dead, floating on the bottom and opened up the shell and thought I saw some "insides".... was pretty dissapointed. Sure enough, at night he was alive and waiving his pom poms... the molt looked like a carbon copy...

Yesterday my pom pom crab was eating the molt of my cleaner shrimp... which was pretty fun to watch... he basically carried it around with him all day eating it.... dont think he let anything near it

*Watching a molt happen is pretty cool too.... Its almost like watching a girl shimmy out of jeans 3 sizes too small*


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

LOL!!!!! Kweli!! XD


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