My horseshoe crab played dead?

About a week ago I was wondering why I was having some cyano problems. I moved some rock out of my 75 to go in my pico and when I lifted a rock my horse shoe crab floated up. But his shell was just about clear and it looked like his legs and body were starting to decay. It got quickly swepted away and stuck in a hard to reach spot. So I figured that I would just go and breakdown that part of the tank tomorrow. I never got around to getting it out(I know thats bad). But to my amazement this morning he was pushing around sand when I fed the tank. WTF I totally thought he was dead!

 

Sounds like the little bugger was just playing dead.


Edit: Erm...i mean that he molted hah...just realized i put my little funny in but not the actual info. XD

 

The crab molted. What you thought was the dead crab was infact the old body.

 

Ditto with what glampka said!!!!!

 

Lol, Its Aliive!!!

 

Weird...So he has a new shell too?

 

Yup....

The exoskeletons of crabs, shrimp, stomatopods, etc. are an exact replica of the old animal. They grow a new shell under the current one and then break the old one and "walk out of their skin". Then you might no see the crab, shrimp, or stomatopod for a couple of days because their new shell takes a few days to fully harden. They know they no longer have their "suit of shining armor" and they will typically hide until it's hard enough for protection again.