how long is too long?

[Kermitandplum]

Hi all, my hermit crab plum has been molting for almost 3 months now. He is the size of maybe one and a half golf balls as of last time i saw him. Also, there are no visible tunnels from when he went under and my other hermit crab Kermit has been digging a lot-im a bit worried he'll interfere with Plum molting. Kermit has been underground for 5 days now he might be molting too.

How long is too long for Plum to be underground? When should I consider that he might be dead?

Ty yall, Alice

[curlysister]

If you are absolutely certain he hasn't come up, then four months is pretty much the longest a crab will generally be down. That said, crabs do come up and go down without spending much time above ground, so they could have always come up and gone down without your realizing it. If a crab has died underground, there is nothing to be gained by digging it up. If it is at a critical part of its molt, you could do serious damage to it. Also now that you have a second crab down, you really can't dig. I would still wait a while.