Do hermits typically molt when changing shells

[thelawnwrangler]

Hermit grabbed and empty shell I left him. I am proud he decided not to murder a snail.

Question is does this mean he will probably molt?

I just see his old shell where the empty shell was and no sign of him

 

[Dkuhlmann]

They only molt as often as they need to for growth. This only happens when they have enough food for growth. If your tank is fairly clean and free of algae and if you don't feed enough so that a good bit of it lands on the rocks or sand, they're not going to grow or molt.

Blue legged and most other hermits will change shells for the heck of it. They'll even kill other hermits or snails to take their shell even though they don't need a bigger shell. LOL I've seen my blue legged hermits with shells so large they couldn't move because they were too heavy for them :lmao: But they will murder any snail or hermit just for sport as well.

The ONLY good hermit or crab for that matter is the scarlet legged hermit. They're great cleaners and will not kill for a shell. I will not allow any crab of any kind to live in my DT accept for the scarlet legged hermits. Everything else is in the sump

 

[sam.basye]

Generally, hermits only molt for two reasons: growth and stress.

Recently, I switched out my heaters and didn't adjust the new one to the right temp. The next morning the tank hand dropped in the low 70's and every crab had molted.