Crablegs, anyone? *sob* :-(

[notmuffy]

Look what happened to my crab, Crusher!!
The poor little guy was picking at something yummy that was stuck to the filter, and he got his leg stuck! So he did what any of us would do, he severed his own leg.

How long will it take for him to grow it back?
Do you think he has 'learned his lesson", or do you think I should change filtration or put up a screen around it or something?

 

[Allivymar]

Oh I HATE when I do that! *grin*

Heh, although I doubt he'll do it again (not so much from lesson learned as its seems to be a fluke accident) I would cover the filter opening with a bit of stocking or something to prevent further chances of occurance.

Poor guy.

 

[William]

It'll grow back with his next molt

 

[Scottw68TN]

Leave the leg there as a grim warning for him, sorta like the pictures we put on dangerous equipment of severed limbs. or on the coke machine it has a sticker of it about to crush a guy.

 

[Cherry Barb]

That is so morbid Scott! Funny, but morbid!

I think William's right and it should grow back by his next molt. And it shouldn't hinder him much at all. Crabs do that alot in the wild, so I wouldn't sweat it too much. I would probably try the stocking idea around that intake, at least it would be easy to clean also.

 

[William]

My fiddler was missing a leg, and it was there right after he molted.

It won't be back until he rids himself of his current shell, because the shell.. once hardend, can no logner grow. which means it can't allow for the growth of a new limb

 

[notmuffy]

Thanks for the stocking idea, that will keep blood worms from getting sucked up too (on the rare occasion that my gouramis missed one or two).

I'm glad you guys are confident it will grow back on the next molt. i thought it took several molts, but this never happened to any of my animals before.

When I told my husband he said, with serious concern, "Why didn't you help him out??" oh yeah, I'll just say "Stay still little crabby while a hand 11x the size of your body suddenly starts poking at you". 8O I'm sure he would have stood for that. LOL

 

[William]

It may be different for your species of crab.

But mine regrew his entire leg at once with his recent molt.

 

[Cherry Barb]

Trust me notmuffy, my hubby has said worse things...LOL He is totally clueless when i talk about anything fishy. He just kind looks at me with this "uh-huh, she's crazy" look on his face.