HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hey everyone,
I have this half of a coconut which i turned over and filled with EE/crushed coral/moss. I put some shells in as the idea was for it to be a shell room but last night to my surprise, one of my middle size PP's buried himself in it! If he is molting then it this bad?

Your crab is most likely just "hanging out" in the moss. Most of us have a "moss pit" in our tanks.....and it's a popular hang-out! Crabs LOVE moss!!!!

Yes, don't worry about it too much. Crabs molt where they please, and if he wants to molt in the moss, let him. Just make sure the other crabbies can't get to him, if he's molting, anyway.
And if he's not molting, then he's probably just hanging out in the moss, which they love to do.
Good luck.

really? I never knew about moss behavior. There's only a fine layer of it whereas the rest is EE/crushed coral. My crab has been digging in other places and spending weeks underneath before this. This excessive digging is a probs a molt sign. Just wondering if he has enough depth and space in the coconut to molt if he is .

How long have you had the little guy? Excessive digging really depends on the individual crab. I have some obsessive diggers and I have some who never dig unless they intend to molt. ~*shrugs*~ They each have their own little personalities.

Crap! Last night I woke and saw one of my other hermies digging into the coconut! I rushed and picked him off. I could see a little bit of the dug down one. He molted! I could see his old empty exo hanging out of the shell. He must be recuperating in his shell. I was quite worried that this might have stressed him a lot so I gently put the moss back over the coconut and then isolated it using the 2l bottle procedure. Had him for 9 months and this is his second molt.

Do you think this stressed him out? Will he not make it? Did I do the right thing?

You did awesome! I'm sure he'll be fine.

ISOing him was an EXTREMELY good thing to do, nice job!
And I'm sure he'll be fine, sounds like you got there just in time.

yeah, call it luck or a six sense lol! After covering him up, do you think he'll be able to breath since the other crab kinda wrecked the air pocket. I hear a lot of pple saying not to cover them etc... Also, do you think that all the info on the stress of molting is a bit too exaggerated? I mean it is a delicate event, but the way some caresheets go about, it's as if you could stress and kill a molter just by sneezing lol. That's why I freak out about things like this! I remember my first molt. It was a surface molt! it was at a friends house since I was on vacation! When I was on the phone with him he said that he picked the poor guy up while he was still squeezing out of his exo for a peek! I spent 30mins telling him that it wsnt cool what he did and how to iso once he finished molting. After the drama my crabby came out just fine

gasgas

It sounds like you also have common sense.

As to the moss, we have a caddy as a moss pit with a small cocohut in it. When I would do roll call we always knew where Stretch was. For at least two months that was where he would be. But he did allow other crabs in. Once I found 6 of them scrunched into a space that really can only fit 2 or 3.


Moss also is great for humidity.