Hermit Crab Legs Everywhere

[seaweed]

I keep finding legs still attached to partial pieces of body from my scarlet reef hermits around both of my tanks. I thought that they might be fighting, any ideas with what's going on? One tank is a reef tank and it has blue-legged hermits and emeralds. The other tank just has live sand and blue-legged and scarlet hermits.

 

[b_ball12_99]

Might be molting (shedding the exoskeleton).

 

[playtime]

More than likely, they are molting which is a good thing. That means they are growing. I would keep an eye out and see if you find empty shells laying around. If you do then you know something is eating your crabs. I hope that isn't the case.
Playtime

 

[seaweed]

Well that's the thing, I haven't found any empty shells. I have placed a few new shells I picked up for them in a craft store. One of the hermits abandoned his old shell and moved into the new one.

 

[hermit enthusiast]

They don't alway's switch shell's when they molt my blue-legged hermit just molted and he didn't switch shells. He did it during the night so i didn't even have a chance to worry where he went when he molted.

 

[moruti]

There was one time when i saw one of my blue-legged hermit crabs' shells crammed into the opening of a larger shell. When i pulled out the blue-legged's shell & pered into the opening of the larger shell, i saw the tell-tale tentacles of a small octopus! I was only about the diameter of a silver dollar, but an octopus none-the-less. Fortunately, since this was in my classroom, it wasNOT a blue-ringed octo. Unfortunately, it also died about 6 months later (one on the blue-legged shells got crammed back into its hiding place & it couldn't get out).

 

[jacksonpt]

Last week I was away on vacation... when I got home, I had small red claws and legs all over... like they molted as a group or something. I would bet that they are molting, especially if you aren't finding empty shells.