finding appendages can anyone help

I recently have been talking with yall about my clownfish problems and his battle with ich, but just today i have found a couple appendages from my red leg hermit crab, BUT the crazy thing is he still has all of his left. He hasnt lost a single one and i found two legs this morning. Let me back up for a second here and let yall know a lil history, when i first added my red legs i had three one died quickly the other two did fine and I lost the second one about 3 months ago leaving me just one red leg left. Then about a week and half ago i noticed that i saw like 4 legs and a claw sitting on the sand and i could not find my red leg anywhere. I cleaned up the mess and searched everywhere in my tank to find his empty shell, could not find it anywhere and i picked up every piece of rock and moved everything still couldnt find it so i put it all back together and forgot about it. Then about 5 days ago when i went to start feeding i saw my red leg with all his legs and claws moving in the tank, which made me happy cause i didnt lose him, but it is puzzling me to keep finding red legs and claws. I have no idea where they are coming from is it possible that he/she had some kids, or do they just grow new legs back and throw the others out I dont know. I cant find much info on it so i figured i would throw it out at yall. Let me know if you have any suggestions or what it could possibly be. On the other note, my clown seems to get better but im not totally sure. I have been using the garlic method and it seems to help with ICH but im not positive he is done battling this one yet.

 

Your crab is probably molting, all crabs do that, shedding their exoskeleton as they grow. Good luck with your clown!

 

thanks i really had no idea that they could do that it seems like in the last week or so he has gotten rid of every leg and pincher that he has. I honestly thought that there was another baby or something that died off or something.

 

yeah i remember having a 3 1/2 inch sallylightfoot crab and every month he would completely back out of his skin leaving a perfectly intact copy of himself that would stay on the rock til picked it off. it would freak me out the first couple times seeing 2 big crabs in the tank though.

 

Back in the day when mankind was sorting out various oddities, it must have been quite the shock to find flies on excrement. Maggots on carcasses surely raised an eyebrow too. Pasteur was the first to discredit spontaneous generation--this idea that life simply spring up from nowhere.

That might be a bit off subject, but I'm sure I felt much like man did hundreds of years ago when I first looked at my tank and saw and saw my "dead" crab. My prized buy!! Laying colorless, lifeless, and being fed upon by my. . . WAIT!! My crab!!

Now wait a second here. . . I only own one crab. He's dead. But he's not. How could this be?

Moulting was the answer.

I remember that moment like it was yesterday. It always makes me smile to read about someone else's experience with that phenomenon.

Welcome to the world of wonder, BossHog!! Enjoy your saltwater experience. It only gets better.

 

would that crab have voomed if you shot 50,000 volts through him? lol

 

I'm not sure what voomed means, but if it means lept out of its exoskelton, then yes.

 

yea i was quite shocked. It is a weird feeling seeing everything from a crab looknin dead and then finding the undead crab later its cool but thanks for the info

 

its not scary tell its the 30 dollars shrimp.
damn i ruined the surprise:-X