hermit crab

[LittleFishBoy]

Ok. Here is the situation. A couple of weeks ago i went to Woody's and bought 5 hermits, and 5 snails. (Woody's by the way is a here in Portland). I put them in my 10 gallon nano. Today, i saw a hermit out of its shell. I counted my snails and came up with 5. Counted my hermits and came up with 5. Not just shells. All 10 shells had inhabitants in them... How could this be????

[uurt]

Not to worry, your hermit just molted.
When mine molt, they tend to hide for a while as they harden up. Make sure you do eventually provide more "houses" for the crabs or they will co-opt snails.

Lee

[Geoff]

if you want to keep both crabs and snails you need to provide shells for the crabs to grow into. if you do not the crabs will kill the snails for their shells. a lot of time you can get the empty shells from the LFS for next to nothing. make sure you get a variety of sizes. the crabs really like astreas and cerith shells.

G~

[LittleFishBoy]

Great thanks for the good info. Will go and get some new shells. Does anyone have a ballpark figure on how often they molt? Do they molt as often as shrimp do? I have a cleaner, peppermint, and 2 Harlequins and they molt pretty consistently.

[Geoff]

they molt about the same as the shrimp. it is really hard to tell since they are so small. a lot of the time they molt and go back into the same shell. just because they molt does not mean they will want/need a new home.

BTW-what do you feed your harliquin shrimp?

G~

[LittleFishBoy]

Chocolate Chip Starfish. Cheap, and not reef safe. Thats my theory. I just put one in Wednesday evening, and they already have eaten 2 of the arms off. Hungry little buggers. The female carried eggs, but aborted the clutch. I believe that the male never fertilized them.

[MontanaRocknReefer]

Depending on how much your hermits get fed, will determine how often they will molt? As they out grow their exo-skeletion, they shed them!