HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Some of y'all may have seen the pics of my new crabitat I recently "finished." I moved three of our four crabs into it successfully, but couldn't move the fourth because he was dug down in the old tank - a ten gallon that I, admittedly, made some rookie mistakes with. For example, I used a mix of calci-sand and EE. Much more EE than sand, though. There is also a small portion of the tank that has aquarium gravel in it. Like I said, I know the errors of my ways and have corrected all of those errors in the new 55 gallon.

Anyhow, I've been changing the water and food every couple of days for the crab that was still dug down in the old tank because I thought that, due to the length of time he'd been under (three weeks), he was possibly molting and would come up soon. I suspected a molt because this was the crab that we got from a beach gift shop in Naples, FL and he was kept in one of those shallow wooden boxes with no substrate to speak of. Even though we only had about 3.5-4 inches of substrate in the old tank he had himself buried in a position that I couldn't find him anywhere. I just let him be and hoped for the best because I haven't smelled that awful dead crab smell.

Today, as I was changing his food and water, I slid the tank out and looked on the bottom and saw this!







While I am very happy (now I can hold off on the "dead pet talk" to my daughter - this one is hers, too), I am very concerned that he may be stuck. Of course, this knucklehead has himself buried in the most gravelly, calciest spot in the tank. I guess he is moving around because this is the first time I've been able to find him since he went under, his feelers are active, and as you can see in the pics, looks perfectly fine. His color looks great and to me he doesn't seem newly molted. Granted I'm no expert, by any means, but I'm wondering if I should just wait it out some more or try to get him. Also, when he does resurface (either on his own or with help), should I move him into the new tank right away or wait some more. Please advise. We are all very happy to find "Hermie," but also want to make sure that our discovery doesn't take a turn for the worse.

Y'all have been extremely helpful so far and this website is truly amazing. Thanks again.

Jason

He doesn't look like he molted because his legs are worn down. How long has he been down there?

He's been under for about three weeks.

On that time-frame he could just be de-stressing, how long did you have him before he went down?

We had him for about a week in a critter keeper until we got home from vacation. Then another few days in the 10 gallon before he went down. I've been checking on him sporadically throughout the night and he's definitely alive and well. I can hear his shell and legs scraping the bottom of the tank and I can see him turning around.

Just to give an update, I looked at him last night and he's definitely molting! Saw the old exo and everything. In fact, it looks like he's eaten a good portion of it. It's really, really cool that he picked a molting spot where we can see him. Thanks again for the info.