I don’t know what to do…

[crabbycasey]

Long story, short…peeked through a window about a week ago to find a naked crab at the very bottom of my tank. Carefully dug him up (ONLY bc he was naked), but he scurried away and I didn’t want to abruptly pick him up while so fragile. He went behind a limb so I put a popular shell his size in front of him and he immediately went into it, thank goodness! He seemed fine over the next several days and stayed in that same shell.

Couple days ago I saw that very same shell empty on the surface with no naked crab to be found. Almost impossible to tell if I am missing any other shells he might have changed into because I have so many.

My real fear came this morning when I noticed another small window on the side of the tank and I can hear chirping/croaking coming from where the window is. The window is too small for me to see if my crab is naked or in trouble, but the sounds can’t mean anything good.

I am usually very hands off with my crabs and I know never to dig one up unless it’s an emergency… I guess I need help determining if this could be an emergency or not.

Thank you as always to my HCA family!


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[CrabbyLover77]

Hi!

If it were me, I'd dig him up if you haven't already. Since there's chirping, his old shell is topside, and he's went naked recently, I'd go with this is an emergency. Just be ready to iso. Sorry your little guy is having issues!

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[crabbycasey]

Hey CL77, thank you! I made the call to dig him up when I saw bright colors and was confident he wasn’t molting. The little stinker totally had his shell on and I realized the sand had caused his shell color to resemble the abdomen…plus I’ve had to do this twice with 2 different crabs, so I was paranoid. I usually do pretty good and let things run their course, but I was so worried. Each time it happened I added more shells. It was strange, but they all seem fine


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[CrabbyLover77]

Yw! Glad everything worked out ok!

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