Crab Buried No Sign of Life

[808HermitCrab]

Hello! We have two crabs, we've had them a little over a year. Their names are Hermie and Paddy. One passed away due to molting complications. Now the other crabs haven't come close to molting or even changing their shells. I'm not sure if that's a concern or not. What I'm mostly concerned about right now is, Hermie has dug down and I don't believe he's moved in a couple of weeks. He's done this before, dug down, and stayed down for a while. However, he would move around and we would notice the sand above shifting as he went. We'd even hear him scrapping against the glass. The sand hasn't moved except for Paddy occasionally digging down and moving. I don't believe he's trying to molt because Krabby took off his shell and then buried himself. Hermie is/was still in his shell and it hasn't been dug up.

I've tried reading through some posts to see if anyone else has had this issue or not. I haven't seen anything but maybe I'm not looking hard enough. There's no smell coming from the tank, we didn't even notice our other crab passed until we decided it's been too long. Should we try digging around to see if he's still alive? I'd say it's been maybe two or three weeks since he's buried.

[curlysister]

Crabs do not leave their shell to molt.

Digging up or going looking for a crab that is underground, really isn't recommended unless there is an emergency. If your crab is dead, you gain nothing by digging it up. If it is alive and molting, you risk harming it if it is in a critical time of the molt. When they are molting, they won't be moving around underground - they may move before and after their molt, but not during. I wouldn't start to worry until at least 4 months, if all the conditions are good.