Do crabs molt?

[urban reefer]

I found some crab legs and was hoping it wasn't one of my hermits biting the dust.

[ajwaters]

im no expert on all crabs/inverts but I know alot of crabs do molt I pretty sure all of them do it and afterwards they kinda stay out of sight and a little bigger. :D

[matrixnyc]

Crabs do Molt when they get larger, Is your crab a young or smaller crab. the bigger they get the less often they molt.

If you see the crab, leave it be, if it has just molted, it may appear dead, but they become inactive once they molt, I guess its hard work to molt :)

[phistio]

all crustaceans molt...

molting is expected through growth and useful absobance of iodine. if the crab or shrimp has molt, in most cases they'll seek shelter as they're "new" shell is still soft and easily susceptible to predidation. crabs and shrimp occasionly molt from stress as a means to "de-toxify" their bodies.

molting, in most cases, is a sign of good health and proper maturation...and can prove to be (as long as a stable environment is provided) predictable once a pattern is establiched...

my coral banded shrimp molts "like clock work" about every 25 days.

[undrwata]

I once sadly buried my crab...only to see him a few days later in the tank...yes they molt....reminds me od the neighbor that was asked to watch his niehbors house while they went on a weekend getaway. The nieghbors dog showed up with the vacationing nieghbors rabbit in his mouth dead...in a panic the gut bathed the dead rabbit and put it back in the vacationing niebors rabbit cage hoping they would think natural causes. When they returned from the vacation the nieghbow went over to thank his friend and said ..."the weirdest thing happened, just before we went on our vacation our rabit died and we buried him, now he's all clean and back in the cage, can you figure that?"....hope you laughed.


:0

[phistio]

ROTFLMAO!!!!

that's too funny!!!

[srm98]

Undrwata...

The first time I saw what I thought was my dead electro-blue crab I thought he was a gonner too. I removed what I thought was his dead body. About a week later I got a little freaked out when I seen him come out from under one of the rocks!! - Expecially after just recently watching a late night re-run of the movie Pet Semetary!!

HaHa..
Scott

[Pineapple House]

LMAO!! :lol:


PH =)

[enix]

What about emerald crabs? Do they molt too? I have on in my tank that is inactive and is laying on his back. I reached down to turn him over and he twiched, so I left him be, figuring it to be a molting process.

[joanadam]

Pretty much anything with a exoskeleton molts.

[Sandworm]

Thats just plain too darn funny !! :D