Confusion over molt, please let me know what you think!

[Guest]

Question: When a hermit crab comes up from molting, do they a) often wait until their exoskeleton has hardened again, and b) fill their hole back in so it doesn't look like they dug out? Here is why I'm asking:

A little while ago (about two weeks I think, I forgot to mark it on my calendar, BAD Froggie) Seaweed went down, and a few days later Coral went down.....or I thought he did. Seaweed dug really far down leaving a big pile of sand with a few pieces of gravel on top (I still have gravel under the sand, but there's a lot of sand). Then a few days later I noticed a second pile like this. I looked for all my crabs and found everybody but Coral. I did, however, find Coral's empty shell. I looked around in the other shells to see if Coral had switched, but I couldn't find him and I came to the conclusion that either a) he had switched shells and then went down, or b) he went down naked. Today Coral suddenly reappeared underneath the water dish in his old shell. I could see a long trail where he had walked to the dish, coming from almost near where I had believed him to be buried. I can't get him to come out of his shell for me, but that's not necessarily weird, he's always been a shy little guy. From what I can see of him he looks completely normal. Other than the trail I can't see any indication in the pile of sand that he dug his way out. So here's my question: did he wait until he had healed up and then dig his way out and fill the hole back in so that it looks like he didn't do anything to it, or did he never molt in the first place and was just hiding really, really well? Maybe it doesn't really matter, but I feel like whether or not he just molted makes a difference in how I care for him, and I'm really not sure.

[Guest]

They almost always stay down until they harden. Plus, mine are really good at filling in the holes. I never can rely on piles of sand to know if someone is down or not. No worries.

[Gorthaur]

Chech his leg tips - if he has pointy black toenails, he molted.

[Guest]

Thanks guys! That makes me feel a lot better. I think he did have pointy black tips! He's actually re-burried himself Maybe he feels like hiding a little longer.