Is my hermit crab dead?

[Igfamstr84]

I have a hitch hiker blue legged hermit in my cycling tank he just molted and now he hasn't moved in about 2 days he was alive cuz his antena we're moving but it looks like he wedged him self in to a crevice in the live rock does it take a few days for its new skeleton to harden before it becomes active again?

 

[ziggy]

I would think he would hide for a day to harden. Try to nudge him with tongs or something like that

 

[DesertOrchid]

Does it have some kind of shell on it's body? You mentioned that it had wedged itself into some rocks. Perhaps if it is shelled it has gotten caught and might need a little help out. If it doesn't have a shell on chances are it has probably died.

 

[ziggy]

for some reason I'm thinking hermits occupy other empty shells. So I agree if it's shell got wedged it might not have been able to move and left that shell.

If my thinking is correct may need to get that shell out but the hermit should still be moving

 

[Igfamstr84]

No I don't think it's caught it's basically on a little shelf with cliffs that come to a v it's really small and where can I get bigger empty shells and how much do they cost roughly

 

[Stephane Cote]

No I don't think it's caught it's basically on a little shelf with cliffs that come to a v it's really small and where can I get bigger empty shells and how much do they cost roughly

good question. i never really had that problem i had snails that died and i left the empty shells in the tank to cover for these situations. im curious to see what others would suggest for this

 

[reefer gladness]

Hermit crabs use the shells from dead snails as a home. You need to supply a variety of different sized shells for them to move into as they grow larger. If you don't they will attack snails for their shells (which they tend to do anyway). It probably isn't dead but it's feeling very vulnerable without a home on its back.

 

[Igfamstr84]

I think it was stuck I gently pulled him out and he was still in his shell by the way and I placed him on the sand bed and he started walking around now he is grazing on my live rock