Moving with molting crabs

[Mkhenderson17]

Hi everyone, I have two 55 gallon aquariums for my crabs (one for thr big guys and thr other for the little guy). I am moving into my new apartment this weekend (yay!) but I know I have a few molters. I just rescued a big guy last week, I didn't really want to because I knew I was moving this weekend and I knew he needed to Molt but if I wanted him to have a chant to survive, I didn't really have a choice. He buried himself within 10 minuets of being in a proper tank. I was bad and didn't put him in an isolated tank for the fact he was alone in a tank with just gravel for 3 weeks, was healthy, and did not have any mites, so I just considered his three weeks in his old home (aka straight from the pet store into isolation for three weeks) his iso period. I have a few others hidden which may be molting as well.
Obviously with 55gal aquariums, I can't carry them with all that sand in them so I have to empty them mostly. What should I do with my molters/buried guys? I figured it would be best just to scoop them up with as much sand as possible around them and disrupt them as little as possible and put them in a large cleaned Tupperware container. What are your through or suggestions? Any would be helpful!
Thanks!

[Rawrgeous]

I will be honest, disturbing a molt will not be the best thing for him, however, if you do this carefully he might be just fine. You will need an iso for each buried crab. Putting them together would be extremely risky as molting crabs can smell "yummy" to each other. Tupperware works best imo since it stacks, can hold humidity, and it rather cheap. You start with your bare hands and carefully make a small ditch in one corner of the tank. Make sure to stop every time you feel something hard and be extra careful it is not a crab. Have a large plastic spoon ready, as well as a small about of sub/moss ready in each iso. Once you get a good hole to the bottom you want to carefully scrape the sub away from the sides of the hole 1/4 inch at a time. This process is painstaking and slow, but it is the best way to know you aren't running into molters. When you find a cave use your spoon to scoop under the crab, including a small layer of the sand just in case they are still soft. Make sure to check for exos and include them with each crab. If any crab you find is totally active and climbing around with no exo you can put them back with general population after a quick fw dip. I hope this helps!

[GotButterflies]

Make sure they stay warm and humid


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[Kermie16]

Following because I'm about to do something similar. I have a 55g as well and 3 molters. I'm setting up my 20g this weekend and the 2 guys that are already above sub, I'm gonna move them into the 20g. I have an empty 10g we started our crabbing journey in which I'm gonna stack the the 3 tupperware containers in . I'm gonna put a few holes along the sides and tops of the Tupperware so with stacking they are still getting air. I'm gonna line the whole bottom of the tank with moss to help with humidity and the tank already has zoomed uth's attached on the sides and a glass top. So that's the plan. Just hoping it works the way I planned ! Lol! Good luck on your move and hope all molters make it through successfully!!!


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[Mkhenderson17]

Thanks! I am doing a similar system for my non-molters. If I don't get a reply back I'll just wing it the way I suggested and I'll let you know how it goes lol.

[Kermie16]

Fantastic! Thanks! Would love to hear how everything went. My move is in about a month so any advice after ur move would be greatly appreciated


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