Buried for weeks, came out one night, buried again

Where we discuss the behavior of our hermit crabs, as in fights, pecking orders, shell swaps, etc. Please post all naked-crab posts in the Emergency forum.
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Jaimeh
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Joined: Tue Jul 28, 2020 5:19 pm
Location: Maryland

Buried for weeks, came out one night, buried again

Post by Jaimeh » Wed Oct 07, 2020 5:49 pm

We have 2 hermit crabs - one buried itself 5 weeks ago, and the other one about 4 weeks ago. They were not eating and no evidence of them coming up, so I assumed they were molting. About a week ago, there was evidence of one coming up (a hole where he came out of, disturbed substrate where he re-buried, and some food eaten (or at least moved around)). But now it’s been a full week and no evidence of any movement from either again. Why would one come up for only one night?? He can’t be molting if he came out, right? So why bury again?


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curlysister
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Re: Buried for weeks, came out one night, buried again

Post by curlysister » Wed Oct 07, 2020 6:44 pm

Why? Because crabs are weird. My Cher was buried for about 3 months, she came up for literally 3 hours, then went back down for two months. Maybe she was de-stressing. Maybe she was molting back to back. Or maybe she was just being weird. That is my non-science background answer, but perhaps someone else might have a more scientific reason LOL.
But it is definitely not unheard of or abnormal behavior.
"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went." -Will Rogers


Topic author
Jaimeh
Posts: 8
Joined: Tue Jul 28, 2020 5:19 pm
Location: Maryland

Re: Buried for weeks, came out one night, buried again

Post by Jaimeh » Wed Oct 07, 2020 7:22 pm

Well that’s good to hear that is not unheard of!! Thanks so much for your response!


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