yet another question about a crab

[ThatDarnDragon]

this morning, I thought my crab died, it was out of the shell and not moving. so i scooped and flushed. I left the shell in there though.

later on, it was in the shell! It didnt die after all! it took me by surprise since I looked in the opening of the shell and didnt see anything! (good thing I left the shell in there!)

I dont know much about crabs, but do they reproduce a part of their body or something? or did it have a baby? What did I flush?! I know shrimp sheds since mine just shedded yesterday.



Edit: Its a very tiny 1.2" or so hermit crab, red.. dont know what its called.

 

[3fsh]

Most likely another crab decided it needed a bigger home, so it took the empty shell. You really need to do all that you can to give some of those fish away or you are going to have a tank full of sick/dead fish.

 

[Navarre]

All crabs/shrimps/lobsters etc need to shed their skin to grow, this is no different for hermits. You will have thrown away the old shell whilst the newly shed hermit was still deep within the shell. When a shrimp/crab ect sheds its skin they are very vulnerable as the new skin is still soft and takes a couple of hours to harned (takes even longer to harden fully). During this time they will usually hide out of sight for safety. Your hermit was just keeping safe the best way it knows how

p.s. Yes a good job you didnt htrow away the shell! A good tip: Always keep more shells than you need in the tank of various sizes so that hermit can grow into them as they get larger

 

[ThatDarnDragon]

lol, you have no idea how confused I was! lol, espcially its the only crab of the tank.

I found a home for my other clown, my friend took it on, so it'll be ok. The tang I have no idea yet, but since I am plannign on getting a bigger tank, hopefully it'll be alright till then.

 

[3fsh]

Oops... sorry... I didn't notice that you only have one crab. ) Good job for finding a home for the other clown! He will be much healthier and happier.