Question:What do I do? My two hermit crabs were fighting and now it's not in a shell. It's NAKED. I have about three shells in the tank, do you think he will go into one of them? This has never happend before, HELP!
Answers:
It is never normal for a hermit crab to come out of it's shell.. that is a sign of stress, a shell fight or over heating. The crab may be dead but without that strong smell there is no telling.
What is the temp of your tank?
What kind of substrate do you use?
And finally what is the humidity of the tank?
The one way to tell if a crab is dead is to look at the eyes and mouth parts.. if the eyes are tightly down and close to the body it may be dead. If they are clear then it is the exoskeleton and not the crab at all, then look deeply within it's shell you may see a pink crab in there. Then you have a molter who shloud not be disturbed at all.
Also another way to know if it is dead is to look and see if you can see the gills moving.. if not it may be dead.
Helle find one eventually
HELP! My Crab is NAKED!!
Though it's your first instinct, don't panic. Run your hands under water to remove any perfume and/or hand lotion. Try the GLASS CUP METHOD. This is something that I made up that works wonderfully.
Take the nudie crab and dip him in water to wash the substrate off him. Then rinse out his old shell. Put him and his shell into a glass cup together, and put into the isolation tank and leave him alone. It keeps him from running around frantically (as naked crabbies do) and conserves his energy. Besides he is in close quarters with his shell and can't walk away from it. I've been using this method for two years now, successfully.
A second method is to calmly pick up the naked crab and dip him (and his shell of choice) into dechlorinated, Stress Coat treated water and, using your finger, try to gently curl his abdomen into the shell. If he doesn't like the idea, use your fingertip to rap him a little on the head and 'scare' him into withdrawing. If he pops out of the shell, set him into the bath water and take a good look at the shell. Put your fingertip down inside it to make sure there are no protrusions or anything which would irritate or poke his abdomen. Then, try again to get him into the shell. If you still don't have success, try a new shell the same size as his previous shell. If that doesn't work, get him into a shell that is larger. Do not under any circumstances force him into a shell that it too small or uncomfortable for him. He is already under tremendous stress, and forcing him into an unsuitable shell may put him into shock and eventually death.
tro to catch him or lure him with food.
This is natural and don't worry he will go into one soon.
Go to a pet store and get an assortment of different sized shells if he doesn't find one in your tank. It's normal for them to look for another shell when they outgrow their current one. Don't worry! It just means you're doing a good job with them and they're growing!
Try this: http://www.petsmart.com/global/product_d...
its cuz it needs a new shell it doesnt fit in its old one you fed it much
its trying to get away from you
just kill it with a stick
do it for me
well, mine did that too and he never went back in a shell: the 2 got in a fight, he ditched his shell, and never got back into one. I had the perfect sizes and everything... it ended up dying a week later.
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