Very weird hermit crab behavior

maroun.c

New member
For the first time in years, i observed to day a hermit crab get out of its shell not to exchange it for a bigger one but just to wonder all day without a shell in the tank.
The tankhes in has no fish but 4 other crabs.
he kept hiding in the rocks then moving from one hiding place to another for around 5-6 hours and now when I checked him out i noticed he had lost some of his legs as well as the front ones with the claws. Don't know if the other hermits attacked him?
I tried placing some shells in front of him but he didn't go in so now I have him in a tank of his own with a few shells with him.
Any one had this happen in their tank? do you think he will recover the lost limbs or is he a gonner? anything I should do to help?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11648954#post11648954 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by maroun.c
problem is you shouldn't get your limbs eaten at the nude beach
Hehehe
i had a crab to that once he just jumped in another shell a few hours later and was fine =D
 
There have been occasional reports of this happening in the hobby, but usually the crabs make no attempt to hide. I suspect in those cases it may be due to behavior modification by a parasite. Basically, the parasite needs to find a new host (which would be higher up the food chain), so it turns the host into a zombie and makes it do something that is likely to get eaten, like ditch the shell and forgo hiding. In the cases where the animal is still trying to hide or eventually finds a new shell it may just be a problem molting or finding a suitable shell.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11652591#post11652591 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by greenbean36191
due to behavior modification by a parasite. Basically, the parasite needs to find a new host (which would be higher up the food chain), so it turns the host into a zombie

am I the only one that this really creeps out......
 
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