Big hermit crab out of its shell

[ccampo]

I got my tank back in Sept-07 and along with it 3 big hermit crabs, one morning I found 1 dead, to my surprise after counting them I still counted all 3, I started reading about these crabs and realized that it was just his old clothes (called moulting. In this process, the crabs shed their exoskeleton.), here are some pictures :

http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj8/ccampo01/moulting01.jpg
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj8/ccampo01/moulting02.jpg

And here's the naked good looking guy :

http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj8/ccampo01/hc01.jpg
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj8/ccampo01/hc02.jpg
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj8/ccampo01/hc03.jpg
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj8/ccampo01/hc04.jpg
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj8/ccampo01/hm05.jpg

[fish4lyfe]

Cool

[Larah]

Wayyy cool!

[ccampo]

Yes, some people do not like them, but I really enjoy them, their shells are about 2 1/2 inches, and the crab's body itself will probably be like 3 inches.

[FranktheTankTx]

So he's without a shell??? If so, dude!!! Put a big shell in there for him!

You don't want hermits without bigger shells to grow into. After they molt they are growing and need bigger homes.

[ccampo]

There's plenty of shells in the tank, in fact, once I finished taking the pictures he took one for his home. They're happy in the tank walking all around, but I'll probably moved them to the sump once I start putting some corals.

[Crimthann]

Nice.. Looks like he's missing his right eye too.