New crab owner - where are they???

Please post here if you are a new crab owner and someone will be along shortly to welcome you to the HCA! This is also the place to welcome new crabbies to your clan!
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Zebra2010x
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Joined: Sat Mar 28, 2020 2:05 pm
Location: Florida

New crab owner - where are they???

Post by Zebra2010x » Sat Mar 28, 2020 2:14 pm

Hi,
I got my daughter, age 10, 2 crabs for her birthday on March 1st. We both did a lot of research and set up a very nice crabitat for them. She put the two of them, smallish ones, into the crabitat on March 1st. One buried immediately, the other took about 10 minutes. We resigned ourselves to not seeing them for about two weeks as they were probably molting. We continued putting food and fresh and salt water out every night, just in case. After about two weeks, one crab came out, changed shells, and was spotted at around 11pm for 4 nights in a row moving around the tank, going into the salt water, etc. She then went underground again and there had been no evidence of any movement in the tank for at least a week. We're getting worried about the first crab; is it normal for small ones to molt for a month? Is the second crab's behaviour normal? It doesn't look like they've touch any of the food (we have been rotating between fresh fruits and vegetables and misc. protein, as well as a few crab pellets just in case. The humidity and temperate are in range. There is a clear night and day cycle. Is this normal? Will we ever see the crabs? Thanks!

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Xenocrab
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Re: New crab owner - where are they???

Post by Xenocrab » Sat Mar 28, 2020 2:26 pm

The pellets are bad. Don't give them to the crabs. Yes, it's very common for crabs to go down for months. Don't dig, just be patient. Watch the heat and humidity! The crabs will come up and go back down frequently! Don't worry! They may just need time to destress or molt. Can you post pics of your crabitat?

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CrabbyLover77
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Re: New crab owner - where are they???

Post by CrabbyLover77 » Sat Mar 28, 2020 3:13 pm

When I first rescued my crab Petunia, she went down almost immediately. I didn't see her again for 7 weeks. I have four crabs, and it's rare that they are all up at once. 2 of my crabs have probably been under for at least 3 weeks now. It's def normal. Welcome to crabbing!

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My Pets: 2 Pomeranians, 1 Russian tortoise, fishes/snails(40 gal freshwater aquarium), and 13 hermit crabs.
"Hunting is not a sport. In a sport, both sides should know they're in the game." -Paul Rodriguez-
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Topic author
Zebra2010x
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Mar 28, 2020 2:05 pm
Location: Florida

Re: New crab owner - where are they???

Post by Zebra2010x » Sat Mar 28, 2020 3:54 pm

Thank you, we'll keep truckin' on. Trying to attach a picture, can't figure it out. I click the photo icon and I get [img].

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CrabbyLover77
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Re: New crab owner - where are they???

Post by CrabbyLover77 » Sat Mar 28, 2020 5:15 pm

To post pics, you'll need to download the Tapatalk app.

Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk

My Pets: 2 Pomeranians, 1 Russian tortoise, fishes/snails(40 gal freshwater aquarium), and 13 hermit crabs.
"Hunting is not a sport. In a sport, both sides should know they're in the game." -Paul Rodriguez-
https://www.etsy.com/shop/BigBeausBouti ... form-mcnav

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