What happened to my brothers hermit crab

Question

my brother told me to take care of his 2 hermit crabs while he left for vacaion and i went into the room yesterdya and ones hermit crab's 2 arms or legs idk they both fell off. Now he just sits there on his side. Has he died

Answer 1

they probably had a fight

when hermit crabs don't like each other they tend to fight and in the process they loose arms and legs and such what you need to do is divide the crabs as soon as possible.

Answer 2

Well, You can tell if they have died if they smell. I suggest you pick it up and touch and/or do something to see if it moves. If it does not then yeah you have a dead hermit on your hands.

Answer 3

your hermit crabs may have fought and one pulled his arms off.

he might be, but i dont think so. but all i know its not good

Answer 4

He might be molting -- in which case they'll grow back in a few days.

Or, they could have fought and he gotten hurt, hermit crabs do get territorial, they are just typically active at night, hence why they seem so lazy to us --- if he got hurt from a fight, one or a couple of them might grow back and he'll adapt just fine, or he might die, you just have to keep an eye on him and wait and see ---

make sure to keep a damp sponge or water pool close to him until his limbs grow back so he doesn't get dehydrated -- that's the main reason why domestic hermit crabs die.........people dont realize how quickly they can dehydrate.

just keep an eye on him and see how it goes.  

Answer 5

Was the hermit crab it self out of the shell? or did you just see to legs? this is what happens with hermit crabs. They molt and some times legs will fall off if you just saw legs  don't worry it's ok. Now if the hermit crab has crawled out of it's shell it may die sometime they do this if stressed or the temp in the home is not just right and something they will crawl out to move into a new shell.

Answer 6

http://www.hermit-crabs.com/molting.html

Here you go :0

Answer 7

When hermit crabs have a calcium deficiency, they will begin to lose their limbs. You can get him a cuttle bone or some sort of calcium for hermit crabs. Are they getting water? They need to be able to submerge 3/4 of the way into water, to fill their shells. They have gills, and will die without water. If your hermit crab is not moving, put him in water for a few minutes, to get him some water. Visit Hermitcrabassociation.com, and Youtube.com/hermitcrabcare for more information.