This is what a Porcelain crab molt look like

[Jonas Bergkvist]

One of my crabs lives in a Bubble Tip on a cliff, and beneath it i saw my crab on the bottom. I was sure he passed, but i found them both alive The molt is an exact copy of its body. Even the two filter "hands" he collects food with is intact, and the antennas to!! It's amazing. I had a few shrimp do the same but its a bit easier to see that it's an actual molt, and not a corps. This time i could not understand how it would exit the molt, so i decided to find out. Turns out they do that from the head. The top of the skull works like a hatch and allows him to crawl out. Amazing

 

[jgirardnrg]

Awesome. Leave that somewhere to scare your wife.

 

[WVNed]

Stone crab from Florida that came on my live rock from TBS. The size of a dime to a quarter and able to hide in the holes in the rock. We removed all we found. We missed 30-50 crabs of several different kinds by my count among 150 pounds of rock

molt

Live crab removed to sump

Molt

Stone crabs have sex. The female stores the sperm in her body and fertilizes the eggs.
When she molts the developing crabs that were inside the shell are now outside and are carried on her abdomen

I have other kinds too.

 

[gonzo620]

I like drying them out in cool positions. My sally Light foot seams to molt a lot. I usually hold on to it till the next molt. When my kids have friends over or family is over, they enjoy messing with the molts.

 

[WVNed]

I like drying them out in cool positions. My sally Light foot seams to molt a lot. I usually hold on to it till the next molt. When my kids have friends over or family is over, they enjoy messing with the molts.

LOL
Big crab molts start to smell and you get rid of them.

 

[Jonas Bergkvist]

Awesome pictures, thanks for sharing! Those crabs are huge, how big tank do you have? Do you feed them specifically or do they just eat leftovers from feeding the fish?

 

[Jonas Bergkvist]

I like drying them out in cool positions. My sally Light foot seams to molt a lot. I usually hold on to it till the next molt. When my kids have friends over or family is over, they enjoy messing with the molts.

You can do that? Well, i saved my molt in a glass of water and i will dry mine to. Thanks, this was a really cool idea

 

[Jonas Bergkvist]

Awesome. Leave that somewhere to scare your wife.

@gonzo620 gave me a good idea to let it dry. So i will do that and then put it under her pillow muuahahah

 

[G Santana]

Very cool pictures!!!

 

[gonzo620]

You can do that? Well, i saved my molt in a glass of water and i will dry mine to. Thanks, this was a really cool idea

Sure can! prop the body up with a gatorage cap. The legs will dangle down and when it drys it will stand on them

 

[WVNed]

Awesome pictures, thanks for sharing! Those crabs are huge, how big tank do you have? Do you feed them specifically or do they just eat leftovers from feeding the fish?

I have a 240 and a 75 on a common sump made from a 100 gallon stock tank.
I used to let them scavenge the sump. I have 3 crabs. They start eating each others legs picking on the smallest one first. They don't kill them though. I had one with no legs. That was creepy, a crab body with mouth parts. I fed it and when it molted the next time the legs/claws were back. I keep them separated now in different sump sections.

I have 3 large crabs. Two are bigger than my hand now and the one above that lost it's legs is smaller still.

The one on the right is carrying babies again. They are not viable in a mixed reef tank. I guess if you grew phytoplankton and set up a tank for them they could be raised though.

I feed them every day now from the stuff I have for my snowflake eels like squid rings.

 

[Jonas Bergkvist]

Sure can! prop the body up with a gatorage cap. The legs will dangle down and when it drys it will stand on them

Will do!

 

[mexi757]

Dumb question can you put a crab in your sump to eat what ever the feece roller and skimmer didn’t get?

 

[Jonas Bergkvist]

Dumb question can you put a crab in your sump to eat what ever the feece roller and skimmer didn’t get?

It's a good question! I would perhaps put a really small crab in there with a little bit of rocks so i could hide. A fleece roller catches a lot of crap that goes down the sump, and if you add to that a skimmer there isn't really much food for it, is there? I don't know how much you feed or how big your system is so it's hard to tell whether it's a good or bad idea.

If you would consider your sump to have some detritus (i guess yes since you asked) left even after your filtering, i would say go for it. I think some crabs lean more towards eating just crap, and then there are those that eat more of algae, like the Emerald crab. And then there's the ones i keep with the Bubble Tip anemone which are filter feeders.

If i were you i would find a small crab to begin with. One that doesn't grow to big and go from there

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

One of my crabs lives in a Bubble Tip on a cliff, and beneath it i saw my crab on the bottom. I was sure he passed, but i found them both alive The molt is an exact copy of its body. Even the two filter "hands" he collects food with is intact, and the antennas to!! It's amazing. I had a few shrimp do the same but its a bit easier to see that it's an actual molt, and not a corps. This time i could not understand how it would exit the molt, so i decided to find out. Turns out they do that from the head. The top of the skull works like a hatch and allows him to crawl out. Amazing

I just witnessed my Porcelain Crab molting last week. Truly amazing to watch. Nice pictures!

 

[jgirardnrg]

@gonzo620 gave me a good idea to let it dry. So i will do that and then put it under her pillow muuahahah

Put it next to the toilet