This sequence occurred on 31 december 2004. So the Marron pictured had snazzy new shell just in time for New Year!
It was shot with a Canon Powershot s45. I took a light from another tank to help with the picture quality but it is still marginal. Next time I will be better prepared ( well, actually another one moulted tonight but I was too busy watching a dvd to record it...) Anyway, I noticed the Marron looking odd and behaving strangely over the last few days. He spent a lot of time trying to dig a hole in the tank floor. It was actually interesting watching him work, he tended to use his claws to drag material around, like a grader. Notice he is also covered in those strange white things that look like hydra, I think they are called epibionts or something like that. They apparently don't do any harm. if you look closely you can see them move across his shell like inch worms in some sequences and in the vid (though the vid is terrible I know, hey - it's only a digital camera).
I figured he was about to moult when I noticed a gap at the back of his carapace.
This marron is usually quite aggressive and charges the front of the tank when I approach, but he became quite shy at this point. Survival or modesty I do not know ...
I went away for half an hour or less, when I came back I was just in time to see the full moult take place.
The carapace begins to life from the body and the epibionts all start panicking.
You can see the new shell appearing now under the old carapace
I took this one just for reference on the legs and so on.
Notice how the new shell has a different pattern.
Now some rolling around like trying to get off a really tight pair of jeans..
Getting a bit gross now ...
Ahh now for some stretching and recuperation. After the final wriggle that freed the Marron from his old shell, he lay around for a few minutes obviously knackered. Then he started doing some rolls left and right and some interesting stretching poses. But I'm too tired to put those pics up now.
I have many more pics of this stuff, they get boring though, If you would like more please email. Otherwise I'll try to put a few more up tomorrow.