Where did my crabs arm go???

[stricknine]

My arrow crab is now missing an arm-claw. My wife noticed he wasnt moving it this morning and had it curled up next to his body-now its gone. Was it the emerald who attacked, will it grow back, will he be okay, is there anything I can do??? He seems okay, using its legs now to eat and clean himself but also looks like he's struggling a bit. Terrible.

HELP!

 

[Aquarist007]

They can grow back legs so not too worry. You are correct in observing him use his other legs to feed.

 

[little_squid]

your fine
he either molted and was attacked or your iodine is to high and made him molt early which can make them not pull out as easy

it will come back after one or two more molts

 

[stricknine]

After noticing it I tried to read up on it and if this is correct, another website said that their legs grow back but their claws "arms" won't. Will he make it with one arm...

...regarding iodine being too high should i test it and try to reduce it, or even try to maintain a high level so he can molt more often?

 

[little_squid]

no just keep up on water changes no need to add iodine

and the claws will grow back no worries

 

[stricknine]

I noticed he did molt last night, the shell is floating in the tank. Should I remove it or will it be eaten/decompose? Also, how often will they molt? I hate to see it struggling as bad as he has been.

 

[inachu]

I would think the shell is calcium based yes?

I may be wrong.

 

[little_squid]

nano i would pull it out
larger tanks i leave the molt in

 

[KarlBob]

Interesting. I have a red mithrax crab that has had only one claw for several months now. I know it has molted at least once (I pulled the molted shell out of the tank), and my wife hand-feeds it pretty often (she calls it her "special needs crab"), but it has not regrown its claw.

What I find really interesting is the fact that it uses one of its walking legs as a substitute claw. When something gets too close, like my hand, it will raise its remaining claw and the first walking leg on the opposite side, and threaten me with them as if they were both claws.

 

[stricknine]

Karlbob,

Mine is behaving much the same, but the legs sure arent working well to feed himself, and he used to clean his legs with his claws quite often but now he cant, tries to use his legs and near falls over. And there is absolutely no way we can get close to him to feed.

Im stumped. Poor little guy.

 

[SWaquariast]

My arrow crab killed its self when my aquarium was 5weeks old. It pulled all its legs off. The problem was my LFS forgot to tell me that they require iodine. Not very nice on my LFSs part.

 

[KarlBob]

I don't know what arrow crabs eat, but I suggest putting some food in a nori clip (a springy clip with a suction cup) and attaching it low on the glass where your crab can reach the food. This way, even if the crab lose its grip the food won't float away. I tried this because mine frequently has trouble holding on to nori and chaetomorpha.

 

[stricknine]

Thanks,
Will test for iodine. Do you know the healthy parameters I should keep? Also, will try the nori clip as well to keep him fed.