HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I've been having trouble keep my sand (high desert play sand)and sand castle consistency lately with all the extra heat I've needed to use. Yesterday Sneaky dug down (I saw some tunnels on the surface) and I haven't seen him for about two days. I'm worried because he just molted about a month and a half ago. Today I checked the sand and the top layer was really dry, and when I tried to stick my finger in it it felt hard and it was hard for me to make a hole.

I'm really concerned. Should I dig sneaky up or not? I don't know what to!

Wet the sand.

I wouldn't dig considering its only 2 days. Maybe someone else wants to come in and state their opinion just so that we're sure?

Definitely dont dig up a crab thats burried unless its absolutely neccissary - whatever they're down there for, they usually just want to be left alone.
You could take some water and wet the sand by evenly pouring it gently or spraying it over the top layer - it should trickle down and wet it enough all the way through.
How is the humidity in your tank? Lower humidity might be a reason for the sand drying out like that.

I had that same problem recently while my 3 e's were molting. I soaked the substrate with a water bottle. It seemed to work really well. They all made it happy and healthy.

Good luck!

My humidity is around 80% atm. It's cold in my house and my heat lamp is on all the time now. I'll go wet the sand. I'm scared for him. Do you think he could get stuck?

Humidity seems fine, maybe try raising it by 5% or so and see if that helps keep the sand moist?
I bet he will be fine, especially if you keep the sand wet Good luck!

Two days really isn't that long and if you accidentally disturb him he'll be fine. It's better to get your sand problem worked out right now before he settles in to molt as it may be a few months before he's up again.

So I should dig him up and rewet all the sand?

musicalcrabbies wrote:So I should dig him up and rewet all the sand?

I have in the past, when there was no other way to get the sand back to sand-castle consistency.

Okay so I dug him up. He wasn't molting (or hadn't started yet.) There were still little hairs on his legs.
He seemed a little dazed afterward, but I turned off the lights in my room so they could calm down.

wodersorel - do you see now why I was asking about EE? I love this sand but it dries out so fast!

I agree that EE has the benefit of staying moist and humid. Have you thought about doing a mix of the two?

Yeah, I'm thinking about doing a 5:1 with it. Do people have a lot of success with the 5:1 ratio? I've heard lots of controversy about EE.