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November 2008:
"Flower Paradise" |
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| If you are a member of Hermit Crab Paradise, visit the link above to enter the competition. If not, please register first. |
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Survey #023:
What is your second storey made of? |
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| If you are a member of Hermit Crab Paradise, visit the link above to vote. If not, please register first. |
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| Say NO to Crabinacup sold at Walmart! Such humiliation and animal cruelty against hermit crabs must not be tolerated. |
| Say NO to the painted shells sold in many pet stores! Hermit crabs are not toys, nor are their shells. |
| You can help our protest by signing the petitions and joining many other crabbers in the battle for the respect of hermit crabs. |
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| If Hermit Crab Paradise has proven helpful to you, please link back to us! You may use the 90×90 icon above if you wish, but please upload it to your own server. We appreciate your support! |
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| Moulting (molting) is the time of growth for hermit crabs. Unlike mammals and fish, hermit crabs have exoskeletons that do not grow. Therefore, in order to grow any bigger, they must shed this exoskeleton and then grow a new coat. A new exoskeleton is always growing beneath, and when it is time, the old one will be shed. Any lost limbs and antennae will regenerate. Eyestalks will also grow back to size, but it seems that hermit crabs can rarely regenerate their missing eyeball. |
| In general, smaller crabs will probably moult more frequently than larger crabs because they are growing faster. A smaller crab will likely moult once every one to three months, but the bigger crabs may moult once every 18 months. However, these are very rough estimates, so do not be surprised if your jumbo moults every six months. |
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| If your hermit crab is going to moult, there are some pre-moult or moulting symptoms to look for. Below is a list if you are concerned that your crab is close to a moult, in order from the most reliable to the least: |
1. You can see a black sack of fat and water deep inside the shell.
2. Exoskeleton colour fades (commonly know as the 'ashy exo').
3. Eyes fade in colour (like cataracts).
4. Change of usual behaviour (eg. usually aggressive is now shy and inactive).
5. Suddenly eating and drinking excessively.
6. Sitting in the water dish for hours, often the salt water one.
7. They look dull and are very sluggish when walking.
8. Always urging to dig.
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| If you see one of these signs, don't always be alarmed that your crab is close to a moult. Look for more signs; the more, the better the chance. Some smaller crabs may not even show any of these signs and go straight into a moult, while some larger hermit crabs may show these symbols for months without actually moulting. |
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Buried and Surface Moults |
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| Hermit crabs may moult either above the surface or whilst buried in the bedding. |
Buried:
It is difficult to determine whether a hermit crab buried deep in the substrate is moulting or not, but do not dig them up to find out. If they have dug all the way down to the bottom, you can peek through the underside of the aquarium. If they are moulting, cut and remove the top and bottom of a large clean plastic bottle (or similar) and push it all the way to the bottom of the substrate around the moulter as a barrier. Do not use wood or metal products as a barrier. Make sure that the other hermit crabs cannot climb over the barrier and that the temperature and humidity is within the crab-friendly range. Then, all you need to do is wait until the moulter surfaces one day. Unless your aquarium is infested with mites, you should leave a moulter alone. |
Surface:
You can either move the moulter to an isolation unit or set up the same barrier as mentioned before to protect the moulter. If you intend to move the moulter to an isolation unit, grab a scoop and scoop up the moulter along with some of the bedding underneath it to the isolation unit. Make sure that the temperature and humidity are ideal and keep the isolation unit in a dark place. Again, do not fiddle or touch the moulter in any way. Otherwise, you could potentially kill them with kindness. |
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| One day you come to check your hermit crab and you see a naked body lying on the bedding! Is he dead? Check the immobile body. Is it hollow? Give it a small squeeze. If it crunches like a potato chip, then it's just the shed exoskeleton and your hermit crab has just moulted! Another way to determine if it is just the exoskeleton is to check if there is an abdomen attached to the body. Hermit crabs don't shed their abdomens and therefore the shed exoskeleton won't have one attached. |
| Now check the shell your hermit crab was last wearing. Can you see a little pinkish crab inside? The moulted crab will look smaller without the exoskeleton. The new coat is growing, so be patient! If you haven't isolated it at this time, you should do so immediately, or set up a barrier around the hermit crab. If you have other crabs, they might attack it. Keep the tank warm, but do not wet the moulted hermit crab. It is hardening his new exoskeleton and wetting it can cause great difficulties passing through this stressful process. |
| Do not throw out the old exoskeleton! Your crab needs to eat it in order to gain back its lost nutrients. The exoskeleton makes up about 90% of the hermit crab's calcium, and therefore it needs to eat it to regain the nutrients. Do not crush the shed skin to pieces immediately. Your hermit crab knows which important parts to eat and crushing it is unnecessary. If the harder parts of exoskeleton remain, you can crush those up in case the hermit crab wants an 'extra' treat. |
| Dead crabs will have a strong fishy odour. Unfortunately, you may not discover this smell immediately. It can take about three to five days before the smell emerges. Moulted crabs also have an odour, but this smell is less deadly and you will generally not notice the scent at all. |
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