G Smithii Molting?

[Bud's Reef]

I found a G Smithii in a piece of rock that was going to be added to my 24G Aquapod. Luckily, I had put it in a 3G Eclipse just to make sure it was fully cured and saw it before it went into my main tank. I bought a 12G Eclipse just to house it in and after it was in there for about a week it closed up its hole for the night as usual but this time did not come back out the next day. After a few days I started to worry a little and after a week I was really concerned. I read on this forum about them staying closed up during their molt cycle and was clinging to the hope that that was what he was doing. I'm only assuming that is the case since he finally appeared this morning for a short while. He didn't come all the way out but just opened his hole looked around a little and then closed it back up. He was closed up for 10 days!

He didn't even give me a chance to feed him before he closed up and he didn't eat for a couple of days prior to staying in all this time which may be further indication of him molting. If he eats all of his molt I won't know for sure one way or the other, but for now I am just happy knowing he is OK!

 

[justinl]

glad to hear everything ended up okay!

 

[biomekanic]

Good to hear.

One thing you might try is to put a little bit of whatever you're feeding him in some tank water and put a drop or two into the system. If he's hungry, he'll pop out to see if there's something to eat. I used to do this with my G. smithii

 

[G.SMITHII]

my g.smithii takes his sweet time. last molt was two weeks. time before that was 11 days.

i think they molt, harden, and then eat their old skin.

when mine emerges for the first couple days he only opens the door for a couple hours.

then after about a week he's all over the place.

i think mine just hit puberty, because after this last molt he went on a serious rampage.

2 emeralds, a dozen hermits, and 3 snails. (in 4 days)