Red-legged Hermit Molt!!!

I only have one red-legged hermit but it appears there are two in my tank. One is in the shell (moving) and it looks like another is laying in front of the shell! Do these crab's molts normally look bright red and hard, like a live hermit? This is crazy. I thought all molts were translucent like my peppermint shrimp molts. Anyone else experience a molt that looks like another live red-legged hermit (that doesn't move)?

 

No their molts look very close to what the crab looks like.

 

Cool. I find it pretty amazing. I can't tell the difference between the molt and the living crab. BTW, that coral in your avatar is beautiful.

 

The first time I saw this I thought my crab was dead, and it just turned out to be a molt .... such strange little creatures.

 

With hermits, the way to tell the difference is there's no rear end on the molt...it's just empty behind the front half.

 

Thank you

 

I had a really nice molt of my purple lobster on my desk for a while

 

Hmm that's what I should do with my next Blood shrimp molt .. dry it and display ..

 

Just last night a friend was looking in the tank and said "oh no your hermit is out of it's shell" and sure enough there was a red legged hermit laying still on the sand next to a shell. When we looked closer and there was still a hermit in the shell with red legs. I only have a single hermit with red legs so it was pretty easy to do the math. This thread confirms this for me though, so thank you!

I wonder if they all molt the same time of month or something?.. haha (doubt it)