HCA: Hermit Crab Association

My crab has been digging for about 4 days and a few days ago he finally stopped digging and I think he is molting. This is my first time with a molting crab so i'm kind of worried there is 4'' of substrate on the shallow end and 5'' to 6'' at the deep end. He isn't fully submerged in the sand but his shell is the only thing exposed. I have some climbing burlap in my tank and he has dug underneath it, made a tunnel and buried himself. My other crab's favorite place to hangout in under the burlap hide and I'm afraid he will find Crusty and eat him He seems to be digging in the same direction as Crusty is laying. I always provide lots of options for them to eat including: shrimp, blood-worms, bluberries, carrots, spinach, krill, fish flakes, popcorn. I feel like that is enough variety to keep Scuttle from eating Crusty but I don't know what to do. Should I keep my eye on Scuttle and make sure he doesn't dig for Crusty??? I'm afraid Scuttle might need to molt as well so then what? Does Scuttle just miss his little pal or does he want to try and eat crab? Thank you so much for replies

Ypur substrate needs to be a minimum of 6" or 3x the height of your largest crab. Whichever is deeper. And it has to be sandcastle consistancy to hold ots shape. You can safely add 1" per 24hrs as long as you don't pat it down. Just don't cover the partially covered crab for now. Are you feeding them calcium. They need that daily. It can be eggshells, crushed pyster shells, cuttlebone.

Yes they always have clean egg shells in their tank every day

My crabs are medium size so the deepness of my substrate is good for now until they grow

scuttlecrusty22 wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 22, 2019 10:32 am

My crabs are medium size so the deepness of my substrate is good for now until they grow

You said it's 4" on one side. They need the depth to safely molt and not be eaten by another crab. They give off a yummy smell when molting.

My crabs are small and the sand is 3 times deeper than both of them but improvement never hurts. Thank you for your imput about my sand, but do you have an answer for my original question? Thanks

scuttlecrusty22 wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 22, 2019 10:50 am

My crabs are small and the sand is 3 times deeper than both of them but improvement never hurts. Thank you for your imput about my sand, but do you have an answer for my original question? Thanks

I was hoping someone with more experience about iso would answer. I'm sure someone will. You can iso him in meantime by cutting off the top of a plastic soda bottle and placing it over him. I'm sure if you search for that on here you'll find more info about it.

Ok thank you very muchI will definitely do that once I know for sure he's molting. I don't want to iso him until I'm sure.lol In the meantime I will just keep my eyes peeled for any activity. Thanks!

scuttlecrusty22 wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 22, 2019 1:50 pm

Ok thank you very muchI will definitely do that once I know for sure he's molting. I don't want to iso him until I'm sure.lol In the meantime I will just keep my eyes peeled for any activity. Thanks!

You're welcome!