Emerald Crab: Dead or Molt?

[cwfmegan]

I was gone overnight and came back to find what appeared to be a dead emerald crab. He is in a tough to reach area of my tank so I put my net in to scoot him forward a little bit to have a look at him. When I did so, it looked like most of him just fell apart which makes me think he probably just molted. All my parameters are good with the exception of calcium a little on the low end (I'm supplementing every other day with the reef fusion system). Anyways, my main question is: if he was indeed dead, would not removing him cause issues with the parameters of my tank?

 

[cwfmegan]

Also, it definitely was not there the yesterday around noon. And all my hermits and snails are doing just fine!

 

[Squishie89]

Probably just a molt. Depending on the size of your tank, the size of the crab, and the efficiency of your CUC will determine if a dead crab will affect your tank or not.