Hermit Crabs all Molting at the same time

[Hugo Garcia]

Hey guys, so I’ve had 6 hermit crabs in my 20 gallon tank for 2 weeks now, and during the first days they where all right, moving around, doing stuff, but lately they’ve all stop moving and 3 of them have molted, at same time. I find this very strange, they all seem to be alive, but not moving at all. I’ve made a large water change yesterday hoping this would help, but now I just have an algae break out. One of them seemed to be dead, but I still have hopes it will move. Any ideas, suggestions?

 

[GHsaltie]

Typically synced moltings are due to a parameter swing or similar stressful event. Can you list your parameters? How old is the tank?

 

[Maggie321]

Mine do this too. I always figured it was sort of a defense mechanism. Like in the wild if they all molt at the same time then less of them will get picked off while they are waiting for the exoskeleton to harden. It's just a theory ant I have no clue for real why.