HCA: Hermit Crab Association

All 7 of my crabs are undergroud. Some are playing hide and seek (burying for fun or to destress) because they come up at night and eat and wreck the place. Some are molting or have been lost (new ones I rescued were not in good health and burried right away so who knows). The other night I heard what might have been chirping (or maybe just crab versus glass) and I thought ooo how cute. Then today I was reading a thread that said chirping means their cave collapsed and they need saving. Now I am worried. Should I dig? I am afraid of collapsing more caves as best case I have 7 of them down there somewhere.

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If the substrate is the proper consistency, a crab will be able to tunnel its way out. Crabs will also chirp at other crabs if they feel threatened (i.e., someone trying to steal their shell) or if they're feeling "crabby" towards another crab. I often hear chirping coming from the food dish when one crab ousts another that had been peacefully eating.

I once had a tank of 6 molters who chirped and talked to each other underground for a month before they all came up fine.

Ok so no diggy and hope for the best? I do know that one of my biggies made an appearance in the side about halfway up the substrate and he had a nicely formed cave around him. That was 2 days ago. He has been molting for about 4-5 weeks.

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