HCA: Hermit Crab Association

How would you successfully move a buried possibly molting crab without harm???

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Do you have an emergency that requires moving him? If so , someone on here recommended carefully removing substrate from above him. The leaving a rectangle area and moving the entire area to an ISO tank, being careful not to colapse the tunnels that allow him to breathe. I will try to find the post and get back with you.

So I couldn't find the one that I was referring to. I did find this. Hope it helps.
viewtopic.php?f=23&t=104094#p953249

I just did this - what I do is extremely carefully search the tank. I make a ditch to the very bottom on one end of the tank, and then slowly scrape off a small amount at a time until I reach the other end or all crabs have been found, stopping the moment I feel the sand give way (cave) or something hard (potential crab). Once a crab has been found I carefully excavate around it until it's free, then handle it only by the shell. It gets moved straight into a divot made in an iso (with 6 inches substrate) with any shed exo it may have sitting directly underneath it. I then press a cocohut or bowl over the crab and leave it alone until it digs up on it's own. I have done this dozens of times over the years and have never lost a crab this way.

As for why I'm moving my crabs, I got a larger tank. I have 5 crabs currently in a 10 gal. I got a 40 gal to move them all into but 4 of my 5 are buried and was wondering the best way to move them to their new home. They are currently in calci sand, the new tank will have the appropriate moist play sand mixed with coconut fiber.

I am new to all this, what is an iso tank?

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Isolation tank - a smaller barebones enclosure for use in emergencies, to separate out hermits who are injured or new or who had trouble with molting. It's not a must, but with multiple hermits it's a good thing to have around.