If you have been reading my posts about our tropical fish in our 90 gallon saltwater tank you know about Sebas Jr. If you haven’t, here is a post introducing him. Here are two more posts, here and here.
Here are some photos of Sebas Jr.’s molting. You can see the other fish are curious about this process and are hanging around to check out his cast offs.
In the above photo Sebas Jr. has molted leaving behind his outer old skeleton to make way for the new one. You can see the whole skeleton in two pieces. The largest piece with his claws and legs and the smaller piece on the left of his tail. It is amazing to see it come out in just two pieces like this.
Sebas Jr. will stay inside his shell until his new exoskeleton is hard enough to protect him from the other inhabitants of the tank. If they knew he was vulnerable, they would go after him and devour him. They like the taste of crab.
The crab molted over night when it is safe to come out of his shell to caste off his old skeleton so the new one can grow and harden. All the other fish are asleep at this time. He usually roams around the tank and cleans it up nicely and sleeps off all his hard work the next day. He is mostly nocturnal. Occasionally we do see him awake and looking around for food in the daytime.
The other fish in the tank will eventually eat the exoskeleton if Sebas Jr. doesn’t get to it first for protein. On his first molting the exoskeleton disappeared quickly. They cleaned it up in a blink of an eye.
There is always something to see in this tank. It is fascinating to watch this little water world evolve. I will keep you abreast of any new developments. The only problem now is if Sebas Jr. outgrows his present shell. We don’t have anything larger right now. We will have to shop online to find one before he grows too large to stay in his present shell home.
If you want to learn more about hermit crabs, please check out my book, Clarence Henry the Hermit Crab, who was once in our tank. He was quite the dashing fellow and a hard worker keeping the tank pristine.
Thank you for stopping by to read this post and learn more about our hermit crab. He will peek out of his shell soon to clean the tank and fill up on food to regain his strength once again. It is a harrowing process to molt and takes a lot out of him. Come back again for more info in the life of Sebas Jr.
Blessings & Hugs! Stay Safe, Stay Well and God Bless!
READING GIVES YOU WINGS TO FLY! SOAR WITH JEMSBOOKS ALL YEAR THROUGH! HAPPY READING!
Janice Spina aka J.E. Spina
Award-Winning Author
Jemsbooks for All Ages!
Jemsbooks.com
Jemsbooks.blog
Jjspina(at)comcast(dot)net
AMAZON.COM AUTHOR PAGE (All books)
AMAZON.COM JE SPINA NOVELS PAGE
Purchase Jemsbooks
JEMSBOOKS 
very interesting
Thank you, Annette! Hugs x