Newbie needing direction

[Krabscrews]

New crab owner. Tank is not sufficient. Best way to do the basics STAT. My little crabs are awful sluggish, not eating, in fact one has been burried for almost a week. Not sure if humidity levels will cause this or molting. I'm unable to upgrade tank because I read not to disturb him. Looking for direction.

[Neleono]

Here’s an article that will help you with the crab basics, for the other questions I feel I am not expert enough to help. There are many other admins that are very helpful that can lead you in the right direction. http://hermitcrabassociation.com/phpBB/ ... .php?f=120

[curlysister]

The link Nel gave to the care sheets will give you pretty much all you need to know.
To help with more specifics tho - what exactly is not sufficient? You are correct not to dig up a crab who is buried. But there are definitely things you can do to improve the tank while he is under. What are your current temp and humidity? What do you have for substrate? What do you use for water? What are you feeding them?

[scuttlecrusty22]

To go along with Curly's questions... How many crabs do you have? How big of a tank are they in right now? What size tank do you plan on buying?

[PattyJ4437]

I currently own 35 crabs and they are thriving. I am now called the crazy crab lady in my neighborhood. I rescued 6 about a month ago that were very sluggish and now they are even out during the day foraging and climbing everywhere. Since I rescued them together, they are in their own crabitat. The first thing I did was make sure I had the right amount of sand and EE. 5:1. if you do not have at least 6-8 inches of substrate you can pre mix your sand /EE and gradually add about an inch a week loosely so you do not disturb the little guy who is under. They also go under to de-stress, typically they do not instantly molt due to the pre-molt process which incidentally is filling the little sak inside their shell with water. Fresh and salt water bubbler pools and 85/85 heat and humidity. You will need a UTH for a heat source. Please do not use ceramic heaters, they zap the humidity right out of the crabitat. They could be sluggish from being dehydrated, as my 6 originally were. They all fully submerged into the salt pool for almost an hour.

Get rid of any pellet food and feed them dried insects like river shrimp, meal worms, earth worms, egg shell or cuttle bone for calcium, natural peanut butter and raw honey. Fresh fruits and veggies. Mine love Chia seeds! You have a short time to save them.

[craboloading]

New crab owner. Tank is not sufficient. Best way to do the basics STAT. My little crabs are awful sluggish, not eating, in fact one has been burried for almost a week. Not sure if humidity levels will cause this or molting. I'm unable to upgrade tank because I read not to disturb him. Looking for direction.

It is hard to know what is "not sufficient" about your tank without more info.

Based off what you have provided, I would not be instantly worried about a crab being underground for a week. As long as substrate is able to hold a tunnel (poke your finger in and see if the hole/tunnel holds) then your underground crab should be able to resurface when it is ready to.

Also, "sluggish" and "not eating" may not be as alarming as you make it sound. With small crabs it can be near impossible to look at the food bowl and tell if they've eaten. They don't (and don't need to!) eat every single day. And when they do, it's likely such a small amount that you can't notice. New crabs need to destress. What you're calling sluggish may just be them hiding/adjusting. Remember they are nocturnal and prey animals, it is very normal to not see them out and about always.

Read through the care sheets. Make the big changes ASAP. Humidity/temp, substrate levels, water, and food.