HCA: Hermit Crab Association

So, as some of you know from my emergency thread, I had both my crabs underground. One, I found underground naked so I dug him up and isoed him. A week or so ago, I confirmed that he was dead. Now, the other crab is still underground and I'm not sure if he's alive or not. My assumption is that there was a fight over shells underground and that's why I ended up with the naked crab. The potentially still alive crab, grape, is a medium and has been underground for about 3 1/2 months or so. I know he was alive around the same time I had the streaker since I saw him digging around briefly after I got the streaker isoed. However, there's no movement since. I know it could take him another month or so to finish molting but I have a few constraints that test my patience. The first is the shell fight. The second is the abundance of fruit flies/aphids in the tank. They're bad and they're getting into my apartment. If he's dead, I need to deep clean that tank and I'll dispose of the dirt.

The second is that I found an upside down shell when looking at the bottom of the tank (when I was trying to make sure I didn't squish the naked guy). I'm not sure whose shell it is but I suspect it's the streakers. I want to look just in case (even though I know I shouldn't).

I think overall, I just feel at a cross-roads. I knew that when one of my crabs died, that would end my time as a hermie owner. If I have one still living, I'll take care of him until he can be adopted out. If not, I have a friend who wants use of the tank and some other stuff.

Basically, my question is, how long do I wait until I can know for sure if he's dead or alive. I hate being in limbo like this.

It would be safest to wait one more month if you can stand it, that tends to be the tail end of max molt time for most crabs. No crabber should be expected to wait around forever and I totally get the urge to dig. It's a very sucky schrödinger's crab situation and it honestly could go either way. They can both surprise you and break your heart.

In the meantime you can definitely gut the surface of the tank - carefully remove decor and scrape off the top later. That should take care of the bug problem and then will let you see if the potential molter is sneaking around at any point.

Thanks Wordesorel, schrödinger's crab really describes it well. I will do a good surface clean and then wait.