thai micro crab help!

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RevLine

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Feb 1, 2015
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Location
new jersey
so i got two micro crabs a couple of days ago from petco. yes, petco. first time keeping these. one with 6 legs and another with the full 8. they like to hangout under driftwood with some moss.

then just last night next to the 8-legged one i noticed something what looked to me like a molted shell. 6-legged was nowhere to be seen. i took some tweezers and picked the molt out of the moss and put it on the driftwood to look at it and see if any shrimp will pick at it to eat. A rili came by to investigate and to my surprise it moved when the shrimp picked up a leg! i was so shocked because if that was the case, the 6-legged one grew back the two legs in just a couple of days! and i knew it was him because the 8-legged one was on a rock not too far from it. i then tried to tuck him back under some driftwood.

upon waking up today, he's in the same spot but flipped over. kinda scared to mess with him to avoid any injury or if he's dead..

if anyone can help me identify whether this crab is freshly molted or sick, please let me know. i don't want him to end up being eaten by the other crab or shrimp if still alive. do they normally stay immobile for a while after molting? didn't see any other clear molted crab shell by the way so i can't even confirm if it molted.

left pic taken yesterday was when i initially thought it was a molted shell so i put it out in the open.
right pic is where i found him today not looking too good.
apologize for blurry images. using a phone camera.
 

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They can grow back limbs after a molt. He was probably freshly molted when you found him. He may have been damaged by the move, or he may just been too weak to successfully molt ?


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They can grow back limbs after a molt. He was probably freshly molted when you found him. He may have been damaged by the move, or he may just been too weak to successfully molt ?


well he's been in the same spot for a while not moving... i'm thinking he's dead/dying. his color is a very pale tan color, almost clear =/
when i picked him up with the tweezers before it was by a leg. i didn't pinch the main body so hopefully i didn't do too much damage.

being weak sounds plausible too. the crabs at petco were kept in an unheated 1.5 gallon with cherry shrimp so maybe the cold water plus the stress of moving into my aquarium was too much? i had no idea how long they were there in the first place.
 
good news, everyone! =]

so just last night shortly after turning off the lights i actually found the 6-legged one on my moss ball after more than a week of never seeing him. turns out that what i took a photo of and picked up was actually the molted shell of the 8-legged one. i'm assuming I only thought it moved because the molted shell was disturbed by the shrimp or the water current..

or whatever! all that matters is that everyone is okay :D
so in conclusion, i guess cloudy white isn't the color of a dead micro crab (as i initially thought since it happens to shrimp)
 
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