mudplayerx
Active Member
I've had some sort of respiratory cold lately so I find myself up in the middle of the night to take meds. I stopped by my tank to take a 2am looks and I'm glad I did.
My CBS was acting very agitated and was pinching at a feather duster so I decided to take a feeding prong and chase him away from it. I did it 3 times and he prompty returned each time. I thought this as odd as most animals spend some time in hiding after threatened.
So I decided to watch to see how violent he would get in case I needed to return him (I've had him for about 6 months). He behavior got more and more strange. He then started rubbing one leg on a xenia over and over. After he stopped with that leg he began with another leg on some live rock. This continued on until he has done this ritual with each and every leg.
His next odd behavior was to spasmodically raise and lower his main claws as if he was praying to some invertebrate god. He was moving them in a way I have never seen him do, even when trying to appear menacing when I put my hands into the tank.
His head then started getting longer and longer until I realized what was happening... he was molting!!! I was so amazed and I didn't want to miss it so I didn't get any pictures
He slid out of his old exoskeleton through a hole in the head region. He was all comporessed like he was shrink-wrapped. It reminded me of the movie "The Matrix" where they are putting that bug into Neo's bellybutton.
After the CBS freed himself from the old exoskeleton he kept flexing until his color returned. It was at this point that I realized he was moving his legs around one by one earlier to get them hooked onto the live rock so that he could molt.
Good stuff!
My CBS was acting very agitated and was pinching at a feather duster so I decided to take a feeding prong and chase him away from it. I did it 3 times and he prompty returned each time. I thought this as odd as most animals spend some time in hiding after threatened.
So I decided to watch to see how violent he would get in case I needed to return him (I've had him for about 6 months). He behavior got more and more strange. He then started rubbing one leg on a xenia over and over. After he stopped with that leg he began with another leg on some live rock. This continued on until he has done this ritual with each and every leg.
His next odd behavior was to spasmodically raise and lower his main claws as if he was praying to some invertebrate god. He was moving them in a way I have never seen him do, even when trying to appear menacing when I put my hands into the tank.
His head then started getting longer and longer until I realized what was happening... he was molting!!! I was so amazed and I didn't want to miss it so I didn't get any pictures
He slid out of his old exoskeleton through a hole in the head region. He was all comporessed like he was shrink-wrapped. It reminded me of the movie "The Matrix" where they are putting that bug into Neo's bellybutton.
After the CBS freed himself from the old exoskeleton he kept flexing until his color returned. It was at this point that I realized he was moving his legs around one by one earlier to get them hooked onto the live rock so that he could molt.
Good stuff!
