Do hermits Molt?

[lbannie]

Last night I saw some remnants of a hermit crab....it was by my two coral cats, so I thought they ate it......Today, I see my hermit sporting a new shell!! I didn't think they shed their skin? I only have 2 hermits and I can see both of them! Do they molt?

 

[monsinour]

its a crab, so why not?

 

[btldreef]

Yes they do

 

[chain]

Yes as BTLD said. You can tell the difference in a molt and a dead hermit in that a molt will be extremely brittle (it will break apart into tons of pieces if you barely touch it and usually, (if you have good flow) you won't even see a whole molt, just the pieces everywhere.) A molt will also not have any eyes. A dead hermit (upon close inspection) will have eyes and will also not break apart so easily. If you have other CUC in the tank then its possible they will devour the dead before you ever see the dead hermit.

 

[lbannie]

All I saw were some pieces of the legs.... It must have molted, because the new shell he picked is slightly bigger than the old one!