HCA: Hermit Crab Association

We have only had our crabs for 6 weeks now and I have a question. How do you all handle it when you move crabs to ISO thinking they are ready to molt or de-stress because they've burrowed down, but later that night they are up and active as ever? The two I'm referring to hadn't burrowed down before, so when they did I assumed they were either de-stressing or preparing to molt. I gently lifted the crabs and surrounding sand with a large spoon and put them into indentations in the sand in the ISO tank and placed coco-huts over them, but within a half hour they were up and active as ever. I have 2 currently in ISO who are in need of it and I didn't want the newcomers to disturb them so I moved the active ones back to the main tank. This is the first time this has happened. They're going to get tired of "musical tanks". Has this happened to any of you and what do you do? Thanks!

Personally, I never iso molters. I think it just stresses them out. Trust the crabs, they know what they are doing. Mine dig under for fun sometimes, and I won't see them for days.

Iso'ing molters is a personal choice, and there is no right or wrong answer. You must do what makes you feel more comfortable. Good luck with your crabbies.

You make a good point. I'm glad you've had success without it. I will try it that way (not only will it save them much unneeded stress, but us as well). Our sand in the main tank is more than deep enough that they should be able to hide snugly away from everyone. Thanks.

I agree - I ISO new crabs if they seem week or really stressed out. I would also ISO molters in the case if I found a surface molt, uncovered a fresh molt, etc. If your substrate is deep enough they will molt there.

I had the same experience of ISOing crabs who I thought were molting then they were all over the place. Some crabs just like to dig and make us think they are molting. It's much less stressful to just let them do their thing in the big tat.

Of my 14 crabs I have two who literally dig down 6 inches of sand every morning and hang there during the day - inches from my molters who I can see through the glass..."crabs will do what they want." :roll:

AHA!! Looks like it's time for my old adage:

First rule of crab behavior:

CRABS DO WHAT THEY WANNA DO WHEN THEY WANNA DO IT!

I never try anymore to guess when they are going to moult, so I stopped ISO them. So now it's this instead of this

Glad to hear it's not just ours who love to fool their moms. I'll stop "helping them to death" and start letting them do what they know is best. Um, should that have been obvious.....?