Silly Lightfoot Crab Drop Its Shell!!

[junxu95]

I found a dead crab shell this morning. It is from my silly lightfoot crab. I thought my crab already died. Surprisingly, I saw my silly lightfoot crab still alive just now. It is looking around for food. Does this crab drop off his shell and change to a new one periodically?

 

[Frick-n-Frags]

that's how they grow. they drop off the old one, swell up in size a little, let the new one harden, until the next round....

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

Yup, it's called Molting. Most hard shelled invertebrates such as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, and even insects and spiders do it to grow.

 

[JENnKerry]

The amazing thing is how they molt. The first time I saw that from my sally, I thought he died. And I thought how can they do that without ripping the carcass apart? Simply amazing.

 

[rafa316]

My arroww crab molted a few days ago, now he is almost twice his original size

 

[Stanton]

My sally had two legs missing but when it molted two brand new fully fucntional legs just appeared! Amazing. I hope to be able to see it happen one day.