Molting or dead? How long to wait?

[BG21]

We bought 3 hermit crabs a couple of weeks before Christmas. On the first night, one buried. Within the first week, one died. And sometime in January ( I should have wrote the date down) the last one buried himself. The two that buried have not come up yet. Their substrate is 3-4 inches deep and it is sand and coco fiber mixed. Temp stays around 76 degrees F. The humidity has always been an issue in that tank because it is a screen lid with aluminum foil over it. We spray it and get it up to 75% but it drops daily to 40% so we have to keep up on it. (This tank was their starter tank, we eventually planned to move them into our really good tank with our other hermit crab). I am just wondering how long we need to wait. They were really small pet store crabs.. I feel like they should be done by now, especially the one that went down in december. Our bigger one just molted and he is super big (in an XL shell) and it was a 3 week process.. There is no smell in their tank. I check under the log daily because the one dug his hole under the log, and there's a mound still from where he went under. Any advice on if I should dig them up or let it go and continue to spray the tank and give them fresh food and water each day?

[curlysister]

Going down to 40% is pretty low for humidity. Is the sub staying wet enough?
You are right that it does seem like a long time for tiny crabs, and presuming that food and water hasn't been touched in that time? (If they were coming up when you weren't looking at the tank, you'd see some signs they had been in the food or water.)
I would probably check for them. You can always isolate a crab if it is molting.

[BG21]

It is super low for humidity! The crab we adopted from our friends came in this tank and that is what he lived at for over a year and very rarely did they spray, it breaks my heart but I'm so thankful he survived and he is now thriving in his new tank that stays at 80% humidity lowest and we never have to spray! We bought him friends (as they kept him alone) and our plan was to let them get adjusted to us in that tank and then move them in with him but they went under before that could happen.

I make sure to spray the tank and i did the chopstick test and their substrate is okay. No food or water touched I will have my husband carefully dig for them. If they're still alive how do we isolate them?

Thank you!

[curlysister]

Oh, I may have misunderstood - I thought that the tank they are currently in will go down to 40% at times?

[BG21]

Im sorry, my reply was confusing. I have two tanks- 1 tank has 2 hermit crabs in it. This is the tank where it gets down to 40% humidity. And this is also the tank where the two have buried and not resurfaced.

I then have a bigger tank with one hermit crab in it that holds an 80% humidity, without spraying. I hope that makes sense!

The tank that gets down to low humidity is where our older crab used to live until we upgraded him with a better set up. We put 2 new crabs in the smaller tank until they adjusted then we planned to introduce them to our other crab, in the newer updated tank, but they have yet to come up. My husband plans to dig them up this weekend but I am going to guess they are probably dead, it's been months

[curlysister]

Ah okay, now I understand. Good luck, fingers crossed that they are alive under there still.
In future if you get more crabs, you can put them right into the tank with the other crab - we suggest a quick dip in the fresh water when you do that, so that everyone smells the same and nobody seems like an intruder.

[BG21]

Oh, really?? I had thought that I needed to isolate first. That's good to know, thank you!

[curlysister]

Oh, really?? I had thought that I needed to isolate first. That's good to know, thank you!

Most of us longer term crabbers just look them over and give them a quick dip, and pop them right into the tank.

[BG21]

Good to know!

I can't believe this but we dug up the two hermit crabs that have been buried for months. The one was very dead, smelled awful poor guy the one that buried itself in DECEMBER we thought was dead. Come to find out, it was its exoskeleton that we had found. My husband (assuming they were both dead) cleared the tank out and as he was going to put the shells and such in a container he realized there was a crab in the one!!! I couldn't believe it! He had been down there since before Christmas! We set up his tank again and I noticed him out this morning. When he saw me, he dropped back into his shell. For now, I put a towel over his tank. Is this what you would do to avoid stress since we brought him to the surface? Any tips on how to acclimate him would be much appreciated. He was brand new to our home and buried himself the exact night we had gotten him. I am hoping us digging him up isn't a big stresser. Although, I would say he's a pretty good fighter/survivor!

[curlysister]

Where was the exoskeleton? Like underground with him, he hadn't eaten it?
How does he look? Is his new exo hardened up? If he didn't eat his exo, give that to him in the tank- if you don't have it, be sure to offer lots of calcium rich foods, like egg shells, cuttle bone.