Help Crab Out Of Shell [Archive]

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Alec22

11-02-04, 12:13 PM 11-02-04

My Crab fell out of his shell and is not moving
but ,is not smelling bad and is the same color
there is no crab in his other shell

Alec22

11-02-04, 12:15 PM 11-02-04

please help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alec22

11-02-04, 12:26 PM 11-02-04

come on help

J mouse

11-03-04, 11:22 PM 11-03-04

Is he alive? Drop some water on him or something to see if he's still living. If he is than give him lots of shells for him to move into.

Daethian

11-06-04, 08:55 AM 11-06-04

I've been out of town so I'm probably too late!

If your crab has left its shell and is definitely not molting try the following:

Take the crabs original shell and wash it out well to make sure there is nothing in it. Rinse it with stresscoat and get some stresscoat on your hands. Gently pick up your crab , use a spoon if you are squeamish, place the crab and the shell in the bottom of a cup with a small amount of dechlor water. Place the cup in a dark part of the tank and wait. Hopefully the crab will reshell on its own. As a last effort you can attempt to ease the crabs rear end into the shell to see if you can coax it into taking to the shell.

Your crab is most likely stressed so its important to try to prevent stressing it more.

Alec22

11-07-04, 08:06 AM 11-07-04

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !! :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( Not happy sad

Daethian

11-07-04, 06:09 PM 11-07-04

Did you try what I suggested?

metrodiscoretro

11-08-04, 12:31 PM 11-08-04

mine did that too! and it was dead so ya, urs is dead sry. Thats what they do when they r dead.

Daethian

11-08-04, 01:34 PM 11-08-04

mine did that too! and it was dead so ya, urs is dead sry. Thats what they do when they r dead.

Not always. Often a molting crab is confused with being dead because it 'appears' the crab has left its shell. When in reality it has pushed off its exoskeleton and the soft, growing crab is still back in the shell.

Other times they will leave the shell to molt because they are having difficulty.

J mouse

11-08-04, 04:19 PM 11-08-04

I have had a few crabs die and they have stayed inside there shells. What can this mean?

Daethian

11-08-04, 06:25 PM 11-08-04

They don't always leave their shell when they die. I'm not sure what makes the difference.

CF Tristan

11-19-04, 03:41 PM 11-19-04

SO did you follow Daethian's advice, Alec? What's the update?