We have 2 emerald green crabs in the tank (75 gl.) The other day our little crab was hanging upside down on one of the decorations and our skunk cleaner was going to town on him. It was quite interesting. So after the skunk left him, he didn't move. My husband when to move him and said he's dead. Skunk must not have been cleaning him, rather eating him. But I thought it was weird because of the way he was hanging that he would have died. His body was very clean looking and he kind of just dropped to the bottom after my husband moved him. Anyway, I didnt' have him take him out because I didn't know if he could play dead or not and didn't want to dispose of him alive. He took care of the tank saturday and we just got home tonight and he asks where the body went. He said he never removed him. Then we are looking and there he is, eating on a rock. Both of them were out so I know it was him.. Will do some reading on it when I get a chance, but do they shed??? I don't think they do>> Could he have played dead, or gone to sleep?? It really freaked us out. It may sound silly but could the cleaning kind of put him out for a bit. We are talking at least 2 days.
Is this possible??? weird!
- Thread starter piglet007
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LOL!
I've never heard of that happening, but maybe it was like when we get a massage....it just felt so good that he couldnt help but fall asleep.
I've never heard of that happening, but maybe it was like when we get a massage....it just felt so good that he couldnt help but fall asleep.
Crabs and shrimp molt. The cast off looks identical to the 'real' animal--sometimes you can't even find where the animal got out of it! The discards are quickly consumed by other inverts to reclaim the calcium and nutrients.
All crustaceans molt to grow bigger. That is why so many lobsterman here in Maine make so much money during the summertime. Funny thing happened to me last week:
I am a newbie to aquariums but have extensive knowledge about marine organisms. (which usually doesn't help when dealing with creatures contained in small boxes of water) Anyway, the other day I was looking in my tank and saw a "dead" hermit crab in the corner of the tank. If the crab was dead it would have left its little 'home' behind. If another crab pulled it out of its shell it too would have traded shells and left an empty shell behind. No shell was seen, and no current could have placed the "dead" hermit where it laid.
Later that day I had accounted for all hermit crabs!! Turns out the "dead" crab had molted and left its exoskeleton behind. Exoskeletons are made of chiton and most marine critters will eat this as a source of calcium. In fact, I think some crustaceans actually eat what they shed to retain energy. (like some spiders). The remains were gone in 4 hours.
Make sure you have plenty of empty snail shells in your tank or your growing hermits will be forced to attack your snails! (I haven't experienced this first hand but I am always given a bunch of empty shells when I purchase hermits).
Hope this helps, or helps you sleep at night cause it was so boring....either way.
~d
I am a newbie to aquariums but have extensive knowledge about marine organisms. (which usually doesn't help when dealing with creatures contained in small boxes of water) Anyway, the other day I was looking in my tank and saw a "dead" hermit crab in the corner of the tank. If the crab was dead it would have left its little 'home' behind. If another crab pulled it out of its shell it too would have traded shells and left an empty shell behind. No shell was seen, and no current could have placed the "dead" hermit where it laid.
Later that day I had accounted for all hermit crabs!! Turns out the "dead" crab had molted and left its exoskeleton behind. Exoskeletons are made of chiton and most marine critters will eat this as a source of calcium. In fact, I think some crustaceans actually eat what they shed to retain energy. (like some spiders). The remains were gone in 4 hours.
Make sure you have plenty of empty snail shells in your tank or your growing hermits will be forced to attack your snails! (I haven't experienced this first hand but I am always given a bunch of empty shells when I purchase hermits).
Hope this helps, or helps you sleep at night cause it was so boring....either way.
~d
Just a point--keeping lots of empty shells won't change one bit the likelihood of snails being attacked. Some kinds of hermits are worse than a girl getting ready for a date--they will try on everything in the tank, even if that involves ripping the current live snail out. I've seen it happen, and I try to keep 3-4 shells per hermit available, in a variety of sizes.
I don't have any hermit crabs yet. I am thinking of heading over to the lfs to get some more live rock and some snails. The only thing I couldn't figure out with the crab was where he was originally. He was hanging upside down on one of the decorations and when my husband moved him, he swore he had an underside, but it was a bit transparent. LOL Just funny because I really didn't know that crabs molted. I knew that the shrimp and things did, but not the crabs.