Antisocial or Upset?
Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2020 1:39 pm
A little background: I'm a noob crabber- I've had mine for a little more than a month and a half now. I made the mistake of diving right as I was promised they would be easy to take care of, but quickly realized that they have specific living requirements. There's been a lot of change in the crabitat as I upgraded their living space from a 5 to 10 gallon, and gave it everything I could find online to ensure a habitable tank. I have a heat lamp with a temperature limiter that keeps the cage a consitant 77-78 degrees Fahrenheit, though it gets up to 80 in the day. I also have an 8 watt uth that's attached to the back of the tank. I have a coconut fiber background that keeps the humidity around 80-85% (though it was higher for a while due to a faulty humidity gauge). I also try to give my crabs a variety of food, my one crab Marvin really enjoys apples.
Here's my problem: My crabs seem inactive. I know they are nocturnal creatures, but I don't see them come out of their little coves very often, even at night. During the day I can understand why they're not moving, but night seems to be a different story. I sometimes am up until the early hours of the morning, but I see no activity in between sundown and when I go to bed. Marvin used to be more active in the smaller and arguably inadequate tank when I first got him, but not so much anymore. King, my other crab, explored the tank when I put him in but I haven't seen him venture past the entrance of his cove since then. There are large areas of the tank I’ve never seen either crab explore, and I don’t see things “moved around” in the morning either. This has been a problem for a couple weeks.
There's a few things that I've observed about the environment outside my crabitat, but I'm not sure how much they affect crabs as I couldn't find much help in my research. First, the tank is in a naturally bright room. Sometimes throughout the day, I need to close certain blinds to shield direct lights from entering the tank. Secondly, the stand that the tank is on is slightly wobbly, and the floor underneath is creaky. If you walk near the tank, you can see small vibrations in the water (however the last tank was also placed on the same stand). Lastly, the lights in my room are sometimes on past sunset. I’ve tried to help this by placing a 60 watt blue bulb in an indirect lamp and keeping lights off as much as possible, but it doesn’t seem to help much.
Is there an error in my setup or care? Are my crabs antisocial? Am I overthinking?
Pics for my current crabitat:
Here's my problem: My crabs seem inactive. I know they are nocturnal creatures, but I don't see them come out of their little coves very often, even at night. During the day I can understand why they're not moving, but night seems to be a different story. I sometimes am up until the early hours of the morning, but I see no activity in between sundown and when I go to bed. Marvin used to be more active in the smaller and arguably inadequate tank when I first got him, but not so much anymore. King, my other crab, explored the tank when I put him in but I haven't seen him venture past the entrance of his cove since then. There are large areas of the tank I’ve never seen either crab explore, and I don’t see things “moved around” in the morning either. This has been a problem for a couple weeks.
There's a few things that I've observed about the environment outside my crabitat, but I'm not sure how much they affect crabs as I couldn't find much help in my research. First, the tank is in a naturally bright room. Sometimes throughout the day, I need to close certain blinds to shield direct lights from entering the tank. Secondly, the stand that the tank is on is slightly wobbly, and the floor underneath is creaky. If you walk near the tank, you can see small vibrations in the water (however the last tank was also placed on the same stand). Lastly, the lights in my room are sometimes on past sunset. I’ve tried to help this by placing a 60 watt blue bulb in an indirect lamp and keeping lights off as much as possible, but it doesn’t seem to help much.
Is there an error in my setup or care? Are my crabs antisocial? Am I overthinking?
Pics for my current crabitat:
