Hermit crab - legs fell off - help!!!!

[Fudgeywudgeywoo]

Hiya everyone. New to SW in fact any Fish keeping!!!! I know I must be mad!!! Any way my tank has been cycling for just over 5 weeks now. No fish in yet but have put in 1 fire shrimp, 1 emerald green crab, 2 red leggedhermit crabs, 8 blue legged hermits and 2 snails. Everything was great until yesterday. I noticed one of the red legged hermit crabs lost part of it's front legs. They were lying next to him I could see him moving in his shell. Over the next couple of hours the legs disappeared. They reappeared again in pieces.
What happened?
Water parameters are ok.
I was going to start looking at putting some fish in soon. I'm a bit worried now. What shall I do?????
Any advice would be appreciated
Thanks again
Nikki

 

[EricTheRed]

I'd guess that it molted or lost them in a fight. The blues tend to be extra aggressive to the red legs. In fact, my blue legs eventually killed all but 1 large red leg of mine. What ever the cause, I cannot imagine any reason why this would affect you adding fish because bad water parameters would not cause a crab to loose its legs. If your parameters were way off, your snails would probably go first.

 

[Curehead]

That's a good thing for your snails.....LOL

Ha ha only joking....it probably moulted. you wont see the new legs outside the shell until it hardens up. Maybe add a couple of drops of iodine to help harden him up...it wont hurt the shrimp either..

 

[thereefersspot]

+1 for molted