successful straw surface molt howto (pics)

[JediMasterThrash]

Pretty much every time I do my 6 (::cough:: 10) month deep clean, I will encounter one of my crabs that is molting.They might not be molting right now as I dig them up, but either:- They have eaten all their exo, but are still light colored/soft, and might not quite ready to go back to the surface. If they can walk, they go with the crew, if not they get ISO'd.- They have not yet eaten all their exo (very fresh molt), so need more time to eat, harden, and recover. They get ISO'd.- They are extremely pre-molt.This time, I encountered my small/medium straw in the last category. I found it under the surface, but I usually find half a dozen crabs under the surface, and 9/10ths of them are just burying and not necessarily pre-molt.In the staging area (plastic bucket being gaurded by the cats while I clean the tank), I noticed that the straw was not moving very much. Of course my normal fear is that they are lethargic and near death. Or pre-molt, and will bury again.I placed all the crabs into the tank on the 2nd level baskets with the shells when I completed the deep clean and rearrange. The next day, the straw was still there. I picked him up, and surprise there was a whole exo protruding from the front of the shell, still attached a bit to the crab.I snapped this picture:*** Fresh molted straw with exo attached ***And pulled out my little KK from the crab supplies in the garage for an ISO. It was already preset with 4 inches of sand. I filled a mug half full with saltwater and microwaved it to warm it up a bit, and then stirred it into the sand to give the sand a lukewarm sandcastle moisture feel. I then built a molting cave, just fingering a 2in diameter hole in the middle of the KK, about 3in deep. I placed the straw in the hole, and covered the straw with a damp paper towel and a sponge (to keep the light out more than anything else).I placed the mini-KK ISO into the main tank, setting it ontop of the water pools for stability. Placing the ISO in the maintank removes the issue of keeping the temperature and humidity stable.I snapped this pic:*** Mini-KK ISO in the main tank ***One week later I checked up on the straw. I was worried he might have died, since in the past I haven't had the greatest success with surface molts. The straw didn't look like he'd moved, but I quickly noticed that there were leg tips next to the opening of the shell. When I last left him, the EXO was intact, which means he's eaten the exo.I pulled him out, and he was active, and looked hard, but not fully yet. He was unable to stand up on his own yet. I gave him a bite of food, but I had to hold his shell up for him while he ate since he couldn't support it himself yet. Then I put him back in the ISO, to wait a bit longer for him to fully harden and recover.One more week passed, and one day he moved! He'd dug a tunnel into the corner of the KK now. That meant he had recovered enough to move and support himself.So I took him out again and snapped this pic:*** Recently molted straw fully recovered ***Since he seemed fully recovered, I placed him back into the main tank to get some food and a drink and catch up with his tank mates.I snapped this last pic of him climbing up on the cholla bridge:*** Molted straw back in the main tank ***