HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hi guys!! SO I haven't seen my crab for 2 days.....I've looked ALL OVER the crabitat and no luck finding him at all. The crabitat has no way for him to excape so that's not a worry. Neither of my crabs have molted for me yet and I've had them for over 2 months (I know that doesn't matter but I just wanted to make it clear) I looked in the salt pool just to make certain he wasn't drowned. Where could he be? I don't think he's dead bc I don't smell anything. My substrate is about 6'' or 7'', could he just be de-stressing?

This forum strongly advises against digging for your crabs. They can be down for weeks or even months, but that depends on the size of the crab. It took my biggest crab 6 weeks to begin the shedding process. Yours may just be de-stressing since it’s new. You have a good substrate depth but just be patient. I know it’s hard.


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Yep, could be molting or could be de-stressing, or could just be digging for fun, LOL. As Crabby33 said, be patient, and don't dig him up!

Wotu crabs it can be funny. They could be doing one or the other. I have one guy. My smallestt pp extreamy shy since I rescued him about two weeks ago. He digs down durring the day and comes out at night. I am hopping he will adjust eventually. I only know thus because I will at least ince a week check a few hours after lights out to see what is gping on since I dont have a fancy camera set up yet.

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Yeah my crabs usually go down often just for fun If he IS molting I hope it goes well and everything will be fine! I will NOT be digging around for him and I will give him all the time he needs.

Ok so I found my crab, he isn't dead and they are both healthy but they are literally digging in the same hole.....what if they molt together? I'm starting to worry because I'm a first timer at this molting stuff.

I do not know what to do about them molting together, but how did you find your crab? The two crabs will probably leave one another.

If you have places for them to hide, then he could go somewhere in there, but chances are that they have dug down when you no longer see them. When my crabs go down to molt, I usually notice they've disappeared after not seeing them for more than three days, and I leave it alone. I don't really keep track of when molts happen either, but I always notice when they return.

I found him when I was looking at my other crab that is right in front of the glass and I saw movement behind him and there was Crusty!lol

Ok my crab came out of the hole this morning and left the other crab to do whatever it is he's doing. I'm glad they seperated!