HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Ok. So here goes my situation. I adopted 6 crabs from a bar that does crab racing. A "rescue" if I may. So I posted on here before because of molting/habits. So one crab seemed to be digging a few days into having them. New habitat. Better molting conditions if they wanted to. I had not yet set up a ISO tank due to lack of knowledge. One night a larger crab was bullying the digging crab. Would wake up to him screaming (or squeaking or whatever sound they make) so I separated them. 3 times that night before I wake up to the butrying crab out of his shell. I separated them. Got him back to the shell. And creates an ISO tank first thing the next day. Separated him and he buried himself to the bottom that day. To my surprise the next day the smallest of the crabs buried himself in the main tank (about 6 inches down so he would be safe) over 2 months had passed... I didn't want to kill with care but I needed to know if they were dead. The large one was alive but showed no signs of molting. He was just pulled back in his shell keeping to himself. The little one in the main tank had begun to shed his legs to what I could tell. I didn't want to rebury him so I moved him and the legs to my ISO tank. Both crabs hiding away. Now 2 days in a row the larger guy moved by the little guy and today he was climbed on top of him. I put a divisor in the tank but after separating them the original crab is walking around idk if he molted in that time? Or if he was being cranky. But when would I be able to put him back with the others? I don't want to risk him being killed but he is acting normal out of no where. (And yes I know you are not supposed to dig up a crab but after 2 months I wanted to see if they were dead) So so sorry for the long post

First never dig up a crab! Doing so can kill then. My largest crab takes about 5 months. You'll just have to wait it out and hope for the best. As for putting them back into main tank, if he's acting and running around like normal, (and skin has hardened) it's okay to put him back into main tank. I don't ISO my crabs unless bullying cause I believe it stresses them out more.

Sent from my HTC6515LVW using Tapatalk

Ohhellosara wrote:Ok. So here goes my situation. I adopted 6 crabs from a bar that does crab racing. A "rescue" if I may. So I posted on here before because of molting/habits. So one crab seemed to be digging a few days into having them. New habitat. Better molting conditions if they wanted to. I had not yet set up a ISO tank due to lack of knowledge. One night a larger crab was bullying the digging crab. Would wake up to him screaming (or squeaking or whatever sound they make) so I separated them. 3 times that night before I wake up to the butrying crab out of his shell. I separated them. Got him back to the shell. And creates an ISO tank first thing the next day. Separated him and he buried himself to the bottom that day. To my surprise the next day the smallest of the crabs buried himself in the main tank (about 6 inches down so he would be safe) over 2 months had passed... I didn't want to kill with care but I needed to know if they were dead. The large one was alive but showed no signs of molting. He was just pulled back in his shell keeping to himself. The little one in the main tank had begun to shed his legs to what I could tell. I didn't want to rebury him so I moved him and the legs to my ISO tank. Both crabs hiding away. Now 2 days in a row the larger guy moved by the little guy and today he was climbed on top of him. I put a divisor in the tank but after separating them the original crab is walking around idk if he molted in that time? Or if he was being cranky. But when would I be able to put him back with the others? I don't want to risk him being killed but he is acting normal out of no where. (And yes I know you are not supposed to dig up a crab but after 2 months I wanted to see if they were dead) So so sorry for the long post

I know it sucks to have pet sand and not really know if your crabs are alive or not, but digging them up can kill them anyway. Personally, I don't use an ISO tank for molters. I only use it if I feel a crab is being aggressive (I put the aggressive crab in time out in the ISO tank lol). So what I would do is make another ISO tank and move the aggressive crab to that, and put the non molting crab back into the main tank, and find out why the other crab is being aggressive. Is he getting enough protein? Does he have enough shells to change into? Ect. It might help to fill out the emergency template just to see if this aggression could be caused by anything else. It might even be that one crab is very territorial. My larger crabs became territorial when I added smaller crabs into my main tank, so I just bought a tote from walmart and made a separate tank for my larger crabs


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I don't know how to attach files here, but if you can fill out the emergency template we can help you. That tells us everything about their living conditions.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

To begin with, I want to thank you for getting those poor crabs out of that situation. It's hard to believe to me that in this day and age, humans still haven't figured out that animals are not just here for our entertainment. The best way for us to get a good idea of your habitat conditions and to offer advice is by having you fill out our emergency template that Gotbutterlies mentioned here: http://hermitcrabassociation.com/phpBB/ ... m.php?f=27