Hermit Crab question????

Question

The hermit crab crawled out of the shell and died, but heres the weird thing another smaller crab came out?? Wtf?? That little one eats alot and is doing good. Is it a baby or what we've only had them a month

Answer 1

Well the one probably came out and died because you dont have any extra shells in the tank/cage for her to grow into. The little one was probably its baby and took over its mother shell.

Make sure to go to a local pet store and get hermit crab shells. The sell them cheap. It is so when your crab grows it can switch shells.

Good Luck, Hope i helped!

Answer 2

Your hermit crab molted. That's not a baby; it's the same crab with a new exoskeleton. It's a totally normal process. Your crab is not dead, unless you did something unrelated to his molting to kill him.

The hermit crab life cycle is a lot like a frog's. Many tiny fertile eggs are laid in the ocean. Tiny babies called zoea hatch there and drift freely in the ocean for the first two months of life. Eventually the zoea metamorphose and grow into the adult form we are familiar with. At this point they seek out their first shells and crawl onto the land to live. As babies they are so small you need a microscope to see them clearly. It is physically impossible that you have "found a baby crab."

Your adult hermit crab molted; this is how they grow larger, like the way snakes shed their skins.

Keep his terrarium at a steady 75-80 degrees F at all times, and keep the humidity at 75-80 percent at all times. Make sure the bedding is moist sand or coconut husk fiber, twice as deep as your biggest crab. Make sure he has access to de-chlorinated or distilled fresh water (NOT tap water) and de-chlorinated or distilled marine salt water made from a marine salt meant for saltwater squariums (NOT table salt).

Leave his old exoskeleton in the terrarium with him; he needs to eat it to regain lost nutrients so his new exoskeleton can harden. Also leave a cuttlebone in there with your crabs at all times; these are white oval-shaped bones found in the bird supply section of pet stores. He needs a source of calcium to build up a strong new exoskeleton.

Finally, avoid touching him or picking him up for the next month or two. Molting is a long, difficult and stressful process. Disturbing him could easily kill him.

Good luck!

Answer 3

hermit crabs will move inland away from the water, where they search for abandoned shells to inhabit. Hermit crabs then begin growing and developing through a process called moulting. In this process, the crabs shed their exoskeleton. During this, the crabs are extremely vulnerable and inactive, and usually find protection by burrowing in the ground. It takes around 10 days for their new exoskeleton to harden, and during this period the crab is able to regenerate any lost or broken claws or legs. A hermit crab can molt as often as every other month when young, or every 18 months when they are older        IT DIDNT DIE IT SHEDED ITS SKIN

Answer 4

Congrats on the baby!  

Answer 5

your crab probably died because it couldnt find its own shell and its baby started using the old shell. be sure to add different sized shells in your tank just incase.

or..

your crab didn't die, it simply molted. sometimes the molted skin looks like a lifeless hermit crab and may startle you. the smaller crab just looks small because its old skin is gone. be sure to leave the skin in so that your crab can eat it for calcium and vitamins and what not.

Answer 6

No, hermit crabs have never been known to reproduce in captivity. If yours did, you're famous. Congrats. (Although there would be hundreds of them and they'd be the size of rice grains.)

Your crab molted and pushed its dead skin out of its shell. It should molt at least once a month- make sure you have moist substrate for it to burrow in or it could die form exposure while molting. (Happened to me twice :(

Answer 7

yeah it is a baby