Hermit crab molting or dead?

[Macaronii]

Hi,

I'm sorry I don't know where to post this but I need help.

My crab has successfully molted 3 times with me, but this time I came home and she looks different and I am scared she is dead.

Usually I catch her molt after she is already done and her exoskeleton has fallen away and she is inside, but right now I don't see anything falling away and she is just very very pale and kind of white and not moving and her antennas are bent funny and I have been watching her very closely for a little while now and no movement at all. I am * hoping* this is just an early stage of molt? Are they usually very pale?

She does not smelly fishy or anything yet but she was okay last night or at least moving (she was paler than usual last night), and now she is not moving and looks very sick.

She has been a bit sluggish lately so I hope she is molting, but I am also worried she is sick or something because she's gotten so pale in the last week. She went into her Coconut Cabana but I can see her perfectly in the entrance and she didn't bury herself or anything?

What do you think? I'm leaving her alone but I'm SCARED :'(. I love her, she's my only crab because I'm scared to get her any friends because she killed her crabmate last year.

Thanks, Liz

 

[quarryshark]

Not sure, can you get us a pick? Also, do you have larger shells for her to move into? These are needed as they grow/molt.
With the bent antennas, I am leaning toward a molt. It is possible that she is hiding if there are no larger shells for her to go into, but thats just a guess.

 

[Macaronii]

I'm sorry I don't have any way to photograph her right now. She had a bunch of shells in there of different sizes and in the last couple of weeks she's been switching shells a lot, I just put some new ones in there last night that I picked for her that would be a good size since she got a little bigger since she molted about 2 months ago. Right now she's in a shell that might be a little big on her, that's why I had to go out and get her new ones because I noticed she couldn't decide between her small one that she's been in since I got her (about a year ago) and some of the larger ones I had for her.

Anyway I was hoping she'd switch shells over night but she just stayed in her cabana, even this morning when I checked on her she seemed okay but I didn't move her. The last time I moved her was last night and she walked from where I put her back into the cabana. I think she's been in there since yesterday and since I got home tonight she has been in a normal upright position like she usually would be (not on her side or anything), but she is slightly more out of her shell than she usually is when she's just sitting around. She's not moving, her antennas are weird, she's paler than usual, but her exoskeleton hasn't fallen off or anything like I usually find her. If she's not molting then there is definitely something wrong with her because she does not look right. I just *hope* it is molting. She scares me half to death every time.

Like I said she JUST molted 2 months ago. I got her approx. a year ago and she was very small then, so I don't think she's that much older than a year or 2. She molted first with me last Halloween, then again about 6 months later, and then about 3 months later, and if she is molting now it would be 2 months.

Other info is: I switched her substrate from gravel to sand about 3 weeks ago and she was digging quite a lot in the beginning but she stopped about a week and a half or 2 weeks ago and has just been around her cage or in her cabana and not really digging since then. She has been a bit quieter and more sluggish than usually.

Usually she is a VERY active crab. I'm just afraid that the reason she has not been active is because she is sick or something? How do I tell if she was sick? I keep watching for movement and I don't see any

 

[quarryshark]

I assume after reading the posts again that she is a land crab. Not sure if the same rules apply. Anyone else know about these guys?

 

[JG]

I've got some land hermits. I have lost a few over the years and they will seem to crawl out of their shells and die. No molts around and yes they look very pale and pasty. Their water should have a little bit of sea salt and that their substrate should be carbonate sand. Regular gravel is silica based and does not provide the calcium that they need for proper molting.
Did you get her sand from the pet store or from the beach?