How often do crabs molt?

Generally, you will molt once a summer, and you will molt (shell) 13- 18 times in your life.

Definition of peeling (shell):

Usually, the disc-shaped larvae gradually metamorphose into big-eyed larvae, and the big-eyed larvae metamorphose into stage I larvae, which is called molting; At the beginning of the first stage, young crabs are called molting.

Extended reading:

The body wall of Eriocheir sinensis has three layers: basement membrane, epithelial cell layer and horny membrane. Keratinous membrane, the so-called carapace, is an exoskeleton, and its main components are protein and chitin. Because the carapace contains a lot of calcium salts, it is hard, which plays a role in protecting, attaching muscles and supporting the body.

The carapace is a hard structure without life. The inability to expand with the growth of the body has become a limiting factor for the expansion of the body, and it is necessary to shed its shell every once in a while.

Eriocheir sinensis molts about 18 times in its life, 5 times in larval stage and 13 times in juvenile stage. In the larval development stage, with each molting, the morphological structure of the river crab changes constantly until it is perfect, so the molting in the larval stage is called developmental metamorphosis molting. In addition to the changes of connectors, the young crabs with perfect morphology also have the shape of river crabs, and there is no morphological change after molting every time, so the molting at this stage is called growth molting; The last molting from yellow crab to blue crab during mating period is called reproductive molting.

Young crabs often choose quiet and hidden places when molting, usually lurking in shallow water or aquatic plants, and the whole molting process takes only a few minutes. The new body is very soft, its claws are pink, its jaws and tentacles move as usual, its feet can crawl slowly, commonly known as "soft-shelled crab", and its mobility is very weak. There is no ability to resist the enemy at this time, which is a dangerous moment in life. As the new hard shell gradually hardens, it can reach a certain hardness in 24 hours, and the crab can recover its ability and start normal activities. Usually, after 33 hours, the new shell will harden.