Dead emerald crab with no legs??

[SWANN]

Hello, Everyone.

Today I saw 1 of 2 , of my emerald crabs..dead. And when i picked him up..he only had his big claws...his hind legs where totally gone, torn out of there sockets. I'm am wondering what could have done this.

Here is what i have as far as live stock..in my 90reef.

1 Tru perc.
1 yellow tang
1 powderblue
1 sixline
1 algae blennie
1 purple fire fish
1 fire fish
1 cannary blennie(fang blennie)
2 sleeper gobbies(trying to get rid of these guys..formy DSB)
1 (another emerald..havent seen in a while actually)
1 brittle star
1 seacucumber
1 sand sifting star(will remove as soon as found)
1 very small red/velvet star
1 cleaner shrimp
2 peppermint shrimp
6 sexy shrimp
lots of worms
lots of dif snails
fan worm and koko worms

as far as ..corals go..none of them i would think would do such a thing to an emerald. Oh and i remember having a hitchhiker crab that came off a piece of acropora. I dont know what kind he is..but i dont think he would have done this because he always stad in the acropora..and is about the size of my pinky nail.

THanks

[asmujica]

Maybe he molted and what you picked up was his shell...

[skyywelker]

ive heard that hermits sometimes lose there legs randomly when stressed, maybe emeralds do the same?

[Jack G]

I've had several Emerald Crabs die over the years, for unknown reasons. I do know that very shortly after they die thier legs fall off. If the rest of your critters are OK, I wouldn't worry about it.
enjoy,
Jack

[god_of_wolves]

I had the exact same thing happen a couple of times, The first time I thought mine died...

Then about 20 minutes later there he was climbimg on a rock.

It was only a molt that I found.

This may or may not be the case for you, but check you tank for him...He may still be in there? They do tenk to be skiddish for about a day or two after molting...

I believe (Not sure here) that molting is a good thing... I thinks it's a sign that they are thrivign, and growing larger?

On a side note, its actually pretty cool watching them shed thier old shell.

[tyoberg]

I had two in my tank--they molt every 3-4 weeks it seems, though it's tough to tell the 2 crabs apart. I thought I'd lost one as I had seen a shell but hadn't been able to spot 2 crabs at the same time for 3 weeks and wrote one off as a loss--I saw them both yesterday.

Ty