HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hi,

I am a fairly new crab mother.
My crab Jake has just come up from his first moult (with me). I have had several crabs moult successfully in my tat.
He came up this morning after being down for approx. 3 weeks. I was so excited to see him that it took a minute for me to realise that something was wrong.
He is missing two legs on the left hand side, he also looks quite small generally, his shell is now very loose. I have seen him eat, he can walk but it is awkward. After eating he went back into a hole, he then came back up and had a chat to his friend then he went back under ground again.
I have never had something like this happen and I am quite worried. I would appreciate any advice.

Thanks Tarn

Sorry I mistyped, Jake is only missing one leg. So he still has both claws and one leg on the left hand side (one leg missing).

Thanks Tarn

If you can get him set up in a tank away from the other crabs that will help him recover. Get a separate tank or plastic ziplock container with water, food and sub. Let him be in there until he can molt and regrow his leg.
Usually limb dropping is a sign of stress or means he was attacked. If you could also fill out this template so that we can see if there is anything going on that might have caused this.
http://hermitcrabassociation.com/phpBB/ ... 27&t=46102
You can also read through this, it's meant for helping with an attacked crab, but there's still good info in there

Thanks, I will fill in the template in my lunch break (sneaking onto forum whilst at work).
I am sure that he wasn't attacked and that it was a moulting issue. His buddies seemed happy to see him, they had a talk and he climbed in the window of his house (one of his favourite things to do).
He went back underground just before I left for work, I assume that if he is under I should not disturb him??
Something else that I noticed that I have never seen before was what looked like little black worms in the food bowl and in the water bowl. They are not worms, they were squishy matter, could that be poo? I have never seen their poo. I am guessing that it must be connected to him coming up, I am not a big believer in coincidence.

Thanks for your help, I love my crabbies so much.

No need to isolate him if he's getting around fine and otherwise acting normal. Since this is his first molt with you, there's a good chance this was a difficult molt for him. We have no way of knowing all they've been through or how long they've had to put that molt off for. Just keep conditions right (it certainly doesn't hurt to double check your conditions too!), load the dish up with good foods, and let him do his thing. There's a good chance he'll prepare for the next molt sooner then usual.

The dark (sometimes other colors too) "worms" or sometimes described as "noodles" are indeed crabby poo.

Thanks CallaLily.
Update, Jake (who I believe is a girl) is doing super well. She is now behaving as she always has, just with a slight limp .
Comet also came up last night and headed straight to the bath. It was so cute, he played around on his back and then flipped over. He spent about 10 minutes in there before crashing the food bowl.