HCA: Hermit Crab Association

He's back - He's furry - He's Eracer
He went underground Jan 19; the first night we had him
I was very worried that the flood had hurt our chances of seeing him again. But Happy Happy Joy Joy this morning he was perched on top of the highest point in tank feelers waving like crazy. He is lighter but looks well.
Very glad to have him back

Now maybe he can our first E to change shells!

I'm happy for you.
Its a great feeling when they finally come up.

Could you post a link to the details about the flood.
I would really like to know more.

Well this is the thread:
http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ph ... highlight=
I'm not sure how informative it really is, although the responses were helpful in finding possible sources of the flooding.
Now that a bit more time has gone by I am pretty sure the water came from three sources: a bit from the bubbly stump, a bit from a uneven edge on that old ocean container, and a bit from over spraying.
It was shocking how much water was on the bottom though, I removed about 4 cups of water as a liquid and who knows how much in the soggy sand I removed and dumped in my garden.
I have changed both my water sources and my humidity sources to prevent it happening again. I cleaned out the sand end and a small amount up underneath the earth end - but I didn't want to totally disturb the earth as there are about 5 crabs currently under there.
When I replaced the beach I used completely dry sand and it sort of had wick action that sucked excess moisture out the rest of the earth.
I like to mix some Instant Ocean in with the sand so luckily the wet sand didn't smell bad -BUT I had some desert sand under the earth and that stuff makes a foul odor when wet. I will never use it again.
The only crab that I know died during that was Widget. He was a medium PP and had been sitting on the bottom near the desert stuff. He came up the day I discovered the flood and just sat there and died.
Every day now I check for condensation on the glass below the substrate level.
I also changed the whole beach due to some hints from a crab named Fritzi

You can see in the picture how far the sand goes under the earth now.

Congrats on the molt. And since he is lighter than before and he went down the day you got him it is probably due to the fact that he's been eating icky commercial foods or whatever they fed at the pet store and it hasn't offered enough carotene in his diet.

Thanks,
Poor little guy.
It may be my imagination but some of our other crabs have been getting darker over the weeks so
maybe he will color up some now. One of the items in the foodshell this morning was Colorful Crabby.

I just ordered some of that and it just came in! How do the crabs like it? I'm debating on what new foods to put in tonight.

I've seen them eat it several times, actually come to think of it, the ones I've actually seen are the larger ones.
But I usually give it once every 4-5 days.