Large hermit sudden death

[ramgod]

I've had this hermit for about six months now in a 30 gallon tank, he was about the size of a baseball and I regularly fed him large krill (daily).. he used to molt regularly, about every other month, he hadent molted in three months then just yesterday he was sitting in the middle of the tank and was unresponsive to food.. i picked him up and he just fell out of his shell.. Dead .. do these things have a life span ? did something go wrong with his last molt ? All tank params were fine except kh was about 7 but it was for quite some time and i was told these things werent sensative to water conditions..

any ideas what happened ?

 

[jmeader]

They do have a lifespan. I'm not sure how long that is and probably varies according to species. It sounds like you did have a very mature one.

 

[fishfarmer]

I bet it died of old age. I had a large left hand hermit pass recently. Had it just over a year and molted frequently, but after a recent molt it came out without claws! It faired o.k. in an oversized shell and molted again where it regained a claw. When I came back from vacation there wasn't a sign of the crab except for the empty shell.

 

[EmilyB]

I'm finding a lot of the larger crabs just don't last that long. Could be life span, if everything else is okay. You just don't know how old the big ones are.