Emerald Crab can't seem to complete molt

[Jenver]

I have a 5.5 gallon nano tank with just two emerald crabs and elephant snail and a baby brittle star (bred from our large tank). This morning I noticed that one of the emerald crabs was molting -- partially out of the old shell. It's been nearly 12 hours and "he" seems to have not made any progress completing the molt. Except for the other emerald crab there is nothing predatory or dangerous to him in the tank. We've had other emeralds in our large tank, but had never seen one molt before. I don't know if this is an excessively long time and indicates a problem? Should I try to help him or let nature continue to take it's course?

 

[Reefmack]

Welcome to Reef Sanctuary! I'm not sure what to tell you on the emerald. I'm just guessing that 12 hours seems like an awful long time. Sometimes these critters don't survive a molt, but I'm not sure if trying to help is a good idea or not. It would seem to be a pretty delicate process. Wish I could offer you more advice.

 

[nightfire76]

im with mack on that one...they are strong and tough little guys though you can rip their claws and legs off kinda easily...i'd let it alone and see what happens....also check your iodine levels if ya can....i never do but thats what helps shrimp and crabs molt.....all that can be said is if it doesnt make its molt to juat buy another if ya wish....not too much ya can do here

 

[Jenver]

Thanks to both of you for the quick responses. Doing nothing is so hard! But it's a lot easier to deal with when I'm doing nothing based on good advice instead of doing nothing because I don't know what else to do.

Surprisingly the little guy continues to hang on, still carrying around the old body with him minus one front claw he managed to pull off last night. Who knows, maybe he'll make it through after all?

I'll look into gauging the iodine levels. I've read that iodine additives aren't recommended, but there are other ways to get it up if necessary. If that's the cause I definitely want to fix it -- don't want the other guy to go through this too. Looks like torture!

 

[Reefmack]

Good luck with the emerald. They can grow new claws on future molts. I sure hope he can extricate himself soon from that old shell.

 

[BigAl07]

Don't worry about your IODINE levels. Hobby Grade tests kits are about as good as "eye balling it". Keep up with your water changes and the IODINE will be fine.

As Terry mentioned sometimes our wet friends just don't make it through a molt for various reasons. I would suspect this one will probably be alright in due time. If it doesn't come free before it should come loose on the next molt (a month, 2 months who knows . . . )

I wouldn't try to "Help" in any way. 9 times out of 10 if WE help we do more HARM than good. Mother Nature is the pro here so I'd just let her handle it HER way

Good luck and Happy Reefing

 

[DesertOrchid]

+1 to Bigal on the water changes instead of dosing with iodine. Too easy to overdose in such a small amount of water. Good luck!