My New Tankmate - Blue Moon Crab

[euphoria]

Well I hope you guys are right and he'll come out and play soon.
I tried taking pics of the skeleton but it was in a bad area and kept coming out blurry and dark.

 

[obarrera]

Just post whatever you got.

 

[entice59]

my lfs had a lot of these in one tank, they were jumping up and down, i was pondering if i should have gotten it though.

 

[euphoria]

THey are fun to watch and have great color, just make sure it's safe for your tank. I do miss mine

 

[bulzebe]

Post pics. Sounds like it molted.

 

[onebadtang]

i believe your lion had the blue moon crab 'a la carte' for dinner since you didnt feed it for four days.

 

[euphoria]

Originally posted by OneBadTang
i believe your lion had the blue moon crab 'a la carte' for dinner since you didnt feed it for four days.

That's what I thought, but the fact that it doesn't have teeth to chew on, I doubt he ate it, UNLESS he swallowed the whole crab and spit the bones out

 

[euphoria]

Oh by the way, last night after work I tried to take a pic, but couldn't find the exoskeleton where it used to sit. I"ll definitely post pics though if or when it comes out of molting (IF molting).

 

[moraym]

Yeah, the lion didn't do that. A lion will suck something in and spit it back out, but you said the mouth wasn't big enough to do that, and also if it spit the crab back out it would still be alive.
The fact that the crab has disappeared is a good sign, the exoskeleton is likley to disintegrate and get swept away. If it was actually dead, i'd expect it to be sitting in the same place.
Oh yeah, was the exoskeleton/crab standing up? How was it laying?

 

[euphoria]

The exoskeleton was behind the rocks and I believe it was upside down, but then again there was a big hermit crab moving it around.
If it's actually molting, how many days until I'll see it back out?

 

[rookie26]

mine disappeared 4 like a week or week a nd a half i dont know

 

[badkharma]

Originally posted by promisetbg
Actually it is referred to as an exoskeleton.
Thank you for clarifying.

 

[euphoria]

Well guys, the crab hasn't been seen yet, and I"m positive it actually died and is not shedding skin all this time.
Damn it looked nice, I wonder what took its life.

 

[nflnutswif]

You sure it's not something hurricane charlie blew in??

 

[zoe]

I have a feeling you'll be seeing that little blue guy soon. I really think from your description that it was a molt.

 

[euphoria]

It's been, what 3 weeks or something? It couldn't be molting for that long.

 

[zoe]

Sorry, I wan't looking at the dates. If you've not seen him in three weeks, I imagine he's dead. Bummer!

 

[neowind]

What you described in your post was definatly a molt but they are very weak and vulnerable during this time it may have been attacked by something while it was molting. Have you looked at night? Use a flashlight to search the tank at night and see if you see anything.

 

[euphoria]

It's definitely dead, cuz my tank is only 4 feet long and doesn't have too many dark spaces for it to hide. I have checked every corner, and trust me it's dead.
It's ok, lesson learned. If any of you guys wanted one, now you got to think twice about it.