About 3 weeks ago both of my crabs finished molting. It took them roughly about a month and a half from the time when they found their spot, stopped moving/eating/drinking, until they came out of the old shell, consumed it, and finally resumed their normal behavior.
The male (Lucas) dug himself a tunnel under the sand, which he then collapsed so nothing will disturb him during this sensitive time. But, for some reason, the female (Luna) felt confident enough to go through this process out in the open. Which is why I was able to take the following two pictures. I decided that my desire to document this process was not good enough reason to disturb her in this critical process, which is why the pictures are not very great. She also settled into the very back corner of the enclosure, behind a log, which also made things more difficult.
In the first picture, you might say there are two crabs. But, in reality, only the farthest one is a crab, the other one is its discarded shell.
In the second picture, the empty shell can be seen on the right side under the log, while Luna is on the left.
The pictures don’t do a good job showing how dull the old shell was compared to the new and shiny one (I wish I had thought to do BEFORE and AFTER shots). Both crabs came out of the molting process looking like they spend a month buffing out and moisturizing their shells.
Since they’ve finished molting, they’ve both been ravenous, eating anything and everything. This is quite different than their normal pre-molting behavior, when most of the food would go uneaten. I wonder if their appetite is going to continue this way or if they are simply replenishing their energy reserves.
You know the kind I’m talking about. The goldfish in a bowl has been one of the ‘first pet-experiences’ of choice for years. Just about everyone has had one. Unless, of course, your parents didn’t love you enough to get you one. OR… perhaps they had the foresight to know it wasn’t right.
Turtle Affairs 