VERY WORRIED- No signs of crabs for nearly a week

[Smsmoot]

Upgraded crabitat about 10 days ago from 10g tank(levels were impossible to regulate) to a 30g tote(I know, but modified to perfection and levels hold perfect), everything seemed to be going very very well. Crabs went underground but there was still daily evidence of overnight activity... until about 4 days ago. Now, every morning when I check in on them... the water, the food, the whole landscape appears untouched. I am still very inexperienced with molting and such as I have only been a crab momma for about 3 months now. Out of my two initial crabs, "Speedy" and "Philip"(named by my children), both molted within hours of each other a week after coming home. Speedy moved to a larger shell later that day while Philip did not and sadly passed away throughout that night, for reasons I am still unsure of. Since then, I have adopted another, slightly larger, crab.. who we've named "Cake". Cake is a bit cranky and not very social(will pinch if held and likes to knock over huts, water bowls, food bowls, etc). Whereas, Speedy is very gentle and playful... and fast. I am worried that speedy may be hiding scared or even hurt. But, I'm also a newbie so I don't really know if this is normal behavior, I've been reading everything I can find but that doesn't equal experience, just like with raising any kids. I am driven to dig them up to check their well being but I know that can cause more harm than good if molting so i just feel helpless. Please help!

[Hermiearth]

Sounds like normal behavior to me! Try not to stress (I know it’s hard). But they may be molting or just distressing with the new tote. They will come up!


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[LadyJinglyJones]

Heya, and welcome to the HCA!

Congrats on your tote upgrade! (I kept a 29 gal tote until recently, and it was pretty great - the only downside is not being able to see them much.)

So I have good news & bad news: the good is that it's normal not to see the crabs sometimes - the bad is that, depending on what your crabs feel like doing, you may not see them for a while... moults can take months for some crabs.

When all the crabs are underground we call it pet sand. Its just something that crabbers have to get used to.. :roll:

[GotButterflies]

Hello! Welcome to the HCA!

Please do not dig!!!

More than likely they are either de-stressing or molting. They could be just destressing since you just moved them to a new tote.

[Smsmoot]

Thank you guys so much.
You have all calmed my anxiety on this sooo much. I've been trying so hard to get everything right for them. Especially after losing one so early on, ive had quite a bit of guilt for that, assuming I had done something incorrectly that led to the death... Lord knows the pet store employees haven't the first clue on caring for the animals they sell. So I truly do appreciate the help and definitely the reassurance.

[LadyJinglyJones]

No worries! It can all be a lot at first. I don't think there are a lot of pets like hermits - they're pretty odd in some ways.

If you ever have any concerns about your current setup, you can copy & paste the emergency template (viewtopic.php?f=27&t=46102 ) and answer the questions. We can look them over to see if there are any areas that would like improvement.