Noisy crab

[lovepink42]

One of my large crabs is very active at night and has a large bulky shell that i feel is hard for him to move in.
He often knocks his shell against the side of my glass cage while trying to maneuver which not only wakes me up at night, but also i feel doing it repeatedly, although not very hard, could damage his shell.

is there any way i can safely put protection around the side of his cage that would not make noise and not harm him? bubble wrap? foam? i'm not sure what would be safe...

[wodesorel]

It's pretty normal for them to clunk into things, which is why they wear those big heavy shells. As long as you have other shells in the tank that might interested him (Tapestry turbos and "Stripe" turbos are the most popular with PPs) then his shells choice is the one he's happiest in. The shell isn't going to be damaged at all, but the glass may get scratched up.

Is the tank large enough for him? They are usually extremely active after the sun goes down and they do need space to run around in. The other thing that might help is to move any decorations away from the glass so he doesn't have to squeeze through anywhere. They also get a routine going, and they tend to walk the same path every night, so you may need to move some things around to get him into a new routine that doesn't involve the glass sides. Not that it's harmful to him at all, but since it's keeping you up it's probably a good thing to change.

[lovepink42]

yeah scratching the class doesn't matter to me as long as it's not hurting him. i'll try rearranging things, and see if that helps. i'm not sure how much it will help though cause i find the main times he makes noise is when he's burying himself in the corners of the cage and just knocks into the wall...which is why i was thinking there might be a way to muffle the noise...

[wodesorel]

Maybe some cocofiber matting that they sell at the petstore, but it can mold if it touches the substrate.

[lovepink42]

i did think of that briefly, but i figured it would probably fall apart. and i have no idea what sort of other things i could line the side with that wouldn't harm them i figured cardboard would mold or break down and could be treated with somethings...and i have no idea if bubble wrap or foam would be harmful

[sandra03]

I wouldn't use foam.
Have you tried just sleeping with a fan on next to the bed? Takes a bit to get used to but once you do you won't want to be without it. Provides constant white noise which is easy to tune out and drowns out the random irregular noises which you can't.