Crab bodies

[CBAILEY897]

I have a crab that has come out of its shell. It has a different body than the one I seen transfer from one shell to another. This one has a curly thin attached to the body (like a cooked shrimp) :o I was wondering if this is normal or what?

[graveyardworm]

Welcome to TR, sounds pretty normal for a hermit crab.

[Seahorsedreams]

Yup, hermits out of their shell look very odd..... but their little "tail" keeps them nice and secure in their shell so they can't as easily be evicted by another crab.

[CBAILEY897]

Thanks for the feedback. THis is brand new for me. Lots to learn.

[CarmieJo]

Hi CBAILEY897,

:welcome: to TR.

[iglowce]

welcome to TR

[JustDavidP]

If you keep hermit crabs, it is ONLY FAIR that you keep a smallish selction of empty shells somewhere in your system. Yeah, it may be an eye sore, so do what I do, keep them in the back corner of the system, out of sight. The crabs will tune into the location and will often "shop" there.

Hermit crabs adopt homes. Unlike the snails who actually grow the shells on their backsides. If you do not provide additional, larger shells, with "like" openings (you'll probably note that blue crabs prefer longer, conical shells and scarlets, zebras etc, prefer shorter, rounder shells) the crabs will have nowhere to move into as they molt, and grow larger. This will ultimately cause their demise.

Dave