Electric Blue Hermit Crab (dead or alive??)

[dragon79]

Okay:

Today I walk in the door, and I look into the tank, what to my surprise but I see clearly blue legs and little pincher all in tact laying against the live rock. First thing that comes to mind is that he died and the other cannibals of my tank couldn't resist, but.....


I could not find the shell anywhere, but looking closer I find that the electric blue is still alive and kicking but hiding in a hole near the green star polyps, recooperation I imagine after what I believe he must have "shed" somehow??? I thought only shrimp do that...

Here is a picture of what I took out of my tank, in macro mode of course.

 

[mikeguerrero]

Very bizarre,

I don't know if they shed? Could it be that another hermit took his shell? I'll have to ask some reefers because I thought only shrimp molt.

Mike

 

[dragon79]

all hermits accounted for...

Mike I own 4 hermit crabs and that 1 electric blue hermit.

All four hermits are accounted for, they have their shells and moving around my tank where I can see them.

I can see the electric blue still in his shell, I can see it's eye and at least one leg, being it's hard to look in the hole he's in. The leg appears to be blue from what I can tell.... who else would attack or attempt to eat him? It's rather weird, but I think it discarded it somehow, and is recooperating with it's new one. I'll know by at least tomorrow whether it's moved or not.

 

[incysor]

Crabs molt. It's the same way that many bugs, all the shrimp, basically anything on planet earth that has an exoskeleton grows. What you found was the molt. I do from time to time throw empty shells in my tank to keep the crabs from pulling each other, and or snails out of their shells to find new homes. Definitely seems to cut down on the carnage. :smile:

B

 

[Phischy]

I lost my emerald crab while he was motling. In the process of backing his ass out of his old exoskeleton something got to it and killed it. I blame the evil bugs but who knows. I was pretty bummed.

Now i've got 15 hermits in my tank and I think that's way too many but they came from a friend. I have 90 seconds of three small crabs duking it out. Kinda funny really to watch 'em.

e

 

[incysor]

I lost my emerald crab while he was motling. In the process of backing his ass out of his old exoskeleton something got to it and killed it. I blame the evil bugs but who knows. I was pretty bummed.

Now i've got 15 hermits in my tank and I think that's way too many but they came from a friend. I have 90 seconds of three small crabs duking it out. Kinda funny really to watch 'em.

e

15 in a 37 is too many? I've probably got a couple hundred in my main system. :lol:

Of course they're all the little mini blue leg ones. I need to throw some more in my predator tank. I probably have 5-6 in there. The sandbed isn't looking white and cleaned up.

B

 

[djconn]

Yeah, I agree with incysor. I would think 15-30 hermits would be ideal in a 37 gallon. I've heard people recommend as many as one hermit per gallon of water but that might be a little on the high side. I've got about 12-15 hermits in my 20.

 

[fireFISH]

I'm one of those people that go by the one hermit per gallon rule. I've got exactly 20 scarlet hermits in my 20 gallon, and everything looks great.

 

[incysor]

I'm one of those people that go by the one hermit per gallon rule. I've got exactly 20 scarlet hermits in my 20 gallon, and everything looks great.

Some hermits seem to be better than others. The larger ones don't seem as good as the smaller ones. Once I see the sand bed looking grimy I just put some mini blue-leg ones in and before you know it the sandbed looks clean again. Of course I could just not be lazy and vacuum the top layer off during a water change. :lol:

B

 

[djconn]

Hmmm..testing if I can reply to this post

 

[dragon79]

yup its true

Crabs molt. It's the same way that many bugs, all the shrimp, basically anything on planet earth that has an exoskeleton grows. What you found was the molt. I do from time to time throw empty shells in my tank to keep the crabs from pulling each other, and or snails out of their shells to find new homes. Definitely seems to cut down on the carnage. :smile:

B

I found that later that night, he was moving and came out of the hole he was in and crawled in the green star polyps of what he calls home. He was looking brighter with a fresh new skin. I'm almost off work, so I'll probably be able to see more of ol electric blue when I get home.

 

[ravenhawk]

dragon79 I too freaked the first time I saw one of my crabs molt. Years ago I had a 60 gallon tank running and had purchased this cool hermit. He had two anemones attached to the underside of his shell and a small pink spotted crab living inside the shell with him. Not bad for $14.95. Anyway I came home one day to see a large pincer and part of an arm laying at the bottom of the tank. I was bummed until later that night I saw the crab and he was good as new. In my 55 long I had about 2 years ago I had an emerald crab. I had been camping for the weekend and came home to find what I thought was a dead crab at the bottom of my tank only to be surprised by the live one hiding under a rock. I find it rather fascinating to watch them but it is scary when you dont know if its molting or dead crab. Glad yours turned out well

 

[incysor]

One of the first things I had in my 55 was a coral banded shrimp. It molted about 2 days after I put it in. Me and the wife were both totally new to this, and she called me at work to tell me that the shrimp had died. Bummer. I got home later that day and I go look at the tank and it sure looked like it was dead. I got closer and figured it out, and searched around the tank until I finally managed to find it and told Shannen it was alive and well.

B

 

[mikeguerrero]

Hey Brian,

Wouldn' it be cool if we could molt, leave it at the house next to all the yard work that has to be done, sneak away to your LFS spend hours there just shooting the breeze, come back with 1 small purchase, sneak it into the tank and then discard the molt and say wow all this yard work is killing me.

Okay, so my wife isn't into reefing like me... Just was a thought....

Mike

 

[incysor]

:lol: :lol: :lol:

You're a goof.

B

 

[dragon79]

miiiike

Have you been neglecting your chores of being the husband ?? lol. You know you can't let down team member (your wife) Anyway back to the topic,

Those experiences of molting is a trip, especially when you are unaware. I'm just glad I didn't lose money on him. live on electic blue, king hermit of the nano!!

 

[mikeguerrero]

I'm happy you guys got a laugh or a smirk from my odd sense of humor. Sometimes it's okay to be off topic, okay so maybe molting as a human wasn't that funny... Not as funny as when my CBS finally trapped my cleaner shrimp in a corner and was about to strike and instead lounged over to the dead molted shell, and the shrimp got away....


Mike

 

[dragon79]

speaking of...

I'm happy you guys got a laugh or a smirk from my odd sense of humor. Sometimes it's okay to be off topic, okay so maybe molting as a human wasn't that funny... Not as funny as when my CBS finally trapped my cleaner shrimp in a corner and was about to strike and instead lounged over to the dead molted shell, and the shrimp got away....


Mike

the shrimps, I am thinking of getting the anenome shrimp and a few sexy shrimp too. Will add to the wonder of the tank of small life.

 

[incysor]

I found one of those anemone shrimp on Austin once and grabbed it cause I never see them here in Houston. The thing dove into the anthelia, and then I never saw it again. I think maybe my coral banded got it too.

There are several shrimp and crabs that I'm on the look-out for because they're never available here. They're not particularly rare, just not here much.

B

 

[mikeguerrero]

Mine was only 8 dollars, Incysor and my LFS has them. If you like, I will puchase a nice one for you and send it to Houston, the cost would be very negligible.

I could first take pics of it at the LFS, if you want it bam,,,, I'll send it... Same for you Dragon, but I think your LFS has them...

We are talking about my shrimp right, the one I took the pic of?

Mike