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Scarlet Reef Hermit Crab

2K views 6 replies 4 participants last post by  DJOstrichHead 
#1 ·
Do they shed or molt?
 
#3 ·
They do as they grow, like all crabs. You should have several suitably-sized grow-out shells scattered round the tank for your hermits, not only to provide them new 'homes'. If there aren't any new shells for them, hermits can and will pull a snail (genus Turbo for instance) right out of its shell to use it for its 'home'.
Of course, as above, your tank should be as close to natural sea water levels for proper molting, and the health of everything else in your tank.

Dave
 
#4 ·
What would this look like? I've got 3 scarlet hermit crabs and 3 green chromis in a 65G tank that's cycling (ph 8.2, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 5 nitrate, sg is fine, 1.023 IIRC (right in the middle of the range)). The tank has been setup for ~1.5 weeks and the crabs have been in there for a few days.

One of the crabs was acting dead, he wasn't moving and I saw what looked like a pair of legs that had fallen off next to him. However, the next day he was moving around and is now lazy, but munching on some live rock. However, now the other two are exhibiting the same behaviors: laying still with what appears to be limbs lying next to them. Any ideas what's going on with these guys?
 
#5 ·
because the tank is cycling, they have gone through a very stressful past couple days. They have been in a vat of noxious chemicals so any aberrant behavior can probably be traced back to you putting them in so early in the cycling process
 
#6 ·
DJOstrichHead said:
because the tank is cycling, they have gone through a very stressful past couple days. They have been in a vat of noxious chemicals so any aberrant behavior can probably be traced back to you putting them in so early in the cycling process
Thanks, I assumed most of the behavior would be caused by that. However, its the "bits of the crabs falling off" that I'm wondering about.
 
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