Does Hermit Crabs Shed their Skin

[Readingspider]

Hi all

I have a red legged with white spotted pattern and lots of hair hermit crab, as i was doing my water test i noticed a bit of it pincher on the sand, so i dropped a algae wafer in the tank to bring the crab out to see if he was missing a pincher, he wasn't they are both on and i have only the one hermit crab.

So my question is does hermit crabs shed their skin?

 

[becky_e]

Yes, they molt. It looks kind of weird, because usually the molt looks like a complete dead hermit crab with out a shell.

 

[Readingspider]

What a relief I am fond of my hermit, it survived a wipeout of my previous tank, all my fishes was lying dead at the bottom accept for the hermit

 

[caz]

yeah its scary. i remember seeing my hermits sheded skin for the first time. i though i had lost one hehe.

 

[saltyc]

I can't ever quite decide if my crabs are molting, or if my trigger is eating them!
Now that I think about it, there aren't ever any empty shells, just what looks like a dead crab! Guess he would eat the crab if he was going to eat the shell... :laugh:

 

[becky_e]

I can't ever quite decide if my crabs are molting, or if my trigger is eating them!
Now that I think about it, there aren't ever any empty shells, just what looks like a dead crab! Guess he would eat the crab if he was going to eat the shell... :laugh:

Yeah, probably!