A little more than a week ago, I had to straighten everything up because they had even managed to empty the salt water dish in the substrate twice!
When everything was even and clean and not as wet anymore, the one that needed to molt "disappeared". Dug down, I assumed. Four or five days ago, the one that has already molted went behind a mangrove root and sat right behind it, next to the rear glass wall. A plastic plant covered him pretty much, but I could see his shell of course, he's big. Since then, he has just been sitting there, not moving a muscle. I've been worried, because he's the one that has been so crazy about digging, climbing and so on, so he's normally extremely active. I let him be though, since I rarely touch them unless I have to, because I don't want to cause any unnecessary stress. I have just been spraying the crabitat every day, and smelled it of course to make sure he was still alive.
A couple of days ago I panicked a bit, because I suddenly saw a LEG laying on the sand next to him. I opened the lid, removed the plastic plant, and lifted him up to take a look at him. I got very surprised (and so happy) to see all his legs in their right places. He was as pretty and beautiful as ever! However, he sat right next to and just above the OTHER straw who had been doing a surface molt!
He had never dug himself down, he had just been digging a shallow little pit for himself before his molt. He had gotten his colour and everything, so I lifted him up a couple of inches to see that he was okay. His left outer leg tip is bent in the wrong angle, but that will hopefully become normal again after his next molt. He has probably been sitting wrong during his molt, so it got bent when he was still soft and vulnerable. He was also sitting on his exo legs and claws, so he's not done yet. I put him back gently, put his friend back to his place beside and above him at his right side, put the plastic plant back up covering their place, sprayed a lot of water and closed the lid, and are now looking forward to seeing them both back soon.
The thing I thought was SO sweet and interesting was his friend, the crazy straw who has just been sitting there, all still and calm. He hasn't been drinking or eating at all during this time, he's just been sitting there, right next to his molting buddy.
Why, I wonder? Is it for protection? To help the molter by hiding him towards light, movement and possibly other hermit crabs or other enemies? (They are alone in their crabitat, but possibly an instinct..) To keep the humidity up at the molters place? To keep him company? Or because the NON-molting crab felt lonely? Something else?
What do you think? I found it so fascinating and cute. Anyone who says that hermit crabs doesn't care about company doesn't know what they're talking about. These two has been very close ever since I got them. They've been sitting close together even while they have been sleeping. ^^
Sooo.. Now I'm afraid that anything will happen to one of them, leaving the other one without his best friend.
it was heartbreaking.
I always love seeing your crabbies!
Leg and claw exo are just as hard as when the crab has it on them, so you should be able to tell if it actually was exo or not. Can't you see on the hermit crab if it has molted or not? I mean leg tips and such?
The molter has been climbing a bit, and I took some pics of them earlier today. I'll post them in the Picture-section later. 
