HCA: Hermit Crab Association

The health article on molting has some pretty good information! My crab Violet just went down for her molt Friday night and this morning I could hear her shell clanking against the glass as she was tunneling around looking for the right spot to build her molting cave. She’s spent about five days doing this. This has helped me to understand why it could take weeks or even months for crabs to come up from a molt. The first week underground is spent looking for the perfect spot to build their molt caves. Then, once the crab settles down, it will rest until it’s ready to molt and it will rest again after it does its business. Again, this is why it could be weeks or months before the crab is ready to dig back up. And you don’t know exactly where the crab is under the sub until it pops up months later.

And in the meantime WE go crazy wondering lol

I rescued Mike 2 months ago. He went down the night I brought him home. He's still down. I won't go digging, but I'm worried about him. I wouldn't be surprised if he's dead. I'll continue to wait. He was kept in a plastic hamster cage without anything in it except one shell that was too big for him. He took a salt water bath and a few bites of food and disappeared. The waiting and worrying is hard for me. All I can do is hope. How long should I wait before I go looking for him? 4 months? 6 months?

I would wait at least 4 months, if not more. How big is Mike?