Hermit shedding or dying?

[TriggerFinger]

I moved my power head tonight and these two shells came floating out. I know one is a blue leg hermit, I have a few in my tank but is it a molt or was it killed? Which leads me to my next question...the other shell was white and looked like a crab but it had black tips on the claws... I lost the claws trying to pull it out with tweezers. What the crap?

 

[James M]

It looks like there’s flesh there

 

[Rechelle Fleck]

Definitely a shed. Mine look like that every time they go through a moult.

 

[Jberg]

+1 shedding. Several times I thought I lost a hermit then found him later. They often look like that.

 

[Schnizzle]

+2 on the molt/shed. I went through the same thought Monday. Then I saw my lone DT hermit crawling around just fine. I was already blaming it on the Royal Gramma.

 

[wattson]

the bottom one looks like a hermit shed but the top one looks like a zoa eating spider..I would check into this,if you have zoas or palys with spiders in your tank

 

[TriggerFinger]

No coral in the tank; just hermits, starfish and a starry blenny. Apparently it’s eating something if it’s molting. It had crab like claws with black tips. I thought it was a live, white emerald crab at first, it was blowing around the bottom and looked like the whole body.

Sea spiders...couldn’t deal if that’s what it is. Sea spider pics don’t show claws...this definitely had claws. Leaning towards some type of scary crab.

 

[Rechelle Fleck]

No coral in the tank; just hermits, starfish and a starry blenny. Apparently it’s eating something if it’s molting. It had crab like claws with black tips. I thought it was a live, white emerald crab at first, it was blowing around the bottom and looked like the whole body.

Sea spiders...couldn’t deal if that’s what it is. Sea spider pics don’t show claws...this definitely had claws. Leaning towards some type of scary crab.

Emerald crabs are always green so no white ones out there (minus anything that might grow on them). The other shell definitely looks like a typical crab but if it's not an emerald, gorilla crabs are common hitchhikers (they are sort of hairy with black tips on their claws). They aren't something you want in a reef tank so if you do have one, then get rid of it or throw it in your sump.