New crabber :)

[SydneyB]

Hello everyone!
Just adopted some adorable new hermies and would love some advice from more experienced crabbers. I'm a young college student back home after getting in a nasty car accident and have to take time to heal, and needed to focus my mind on something good so I decided to get some lil hermies! ( don't worry though I'm not a half-assed pet owner and am taking these littles one wth me wherever I go).
I adopted two PP's. Ones name is Captain Churro and the other is Private Knight.

I thought I'd post my set up first and see if anyone has any suggestions for additions and then I have a couple of questions for you guys!
I have a 10 gallon tank, 2.5 inches of coconut fiber and "jungle bedding" from petsmart (I was going to bulk order more substrate online, figured it would be cheaper), a combo thermometer and hydrometer, water & food dish, two live moss, three places to hide, a side mounted reptile tank heater and some rocks and fake flowers. I have shells and more things to climb on coming in the mail I need to go get my salt water dish soon, and will do so.

I was wondering if anyone had some good places to get bulk substrate, and what kind worked best for them and their hermies! I want mine to be healthy and happy.
Second, I'm a little concerned for Captain Churro. I adopted him last Thursday, and he seems very inactive. He buries himself all day (which is normal I've read) but I can't tell if he's been eating and drinking. I know Private Knight has been eating and drinking, as I've seen him do both plus he's much more active in front of me.
I've been feeding them both a mix of mealworms, hermie pellets (from the store), apples, strawberries and meat so far. And tips on foods that might be more appealing? I was going to keep switching it up until I found some foods that seemed to appeal to them both more.

Thank you guys so much and I hope your crabs and happy and healthy too

[SydneyB]

another thing, what do PP crabs tend to look like before molting? I.e color changes and what not.

[Rae]

I use bricks of eco earth mixed with playsand. 5 parts sand to one part eco earth. You can get it in pet stores such as Petco or petsmart or online through Amazon or ebay. The playsand you can get a 50 lb bag for about $3-$4 dollars...I get mine at Lowes. I also add in oyster shell into my substrate so they can have something to snack on while molting, dug down, or just chilling on the surface. I got a big bag for like 5 dollars at tractor supply.

You'll want to have at least 6 inches of substrate that is moist enough to make a sand castle. You'll want to do this so your crabs can dig down far enough to be safe while molting and with the sand being moist, their tunnels will be less likely to collapse and it'll be easier for them to dig. You can get a small spray bottle to spritz around the tank. It helps keeps things moist and keep up the humidity.

In my experience, crabs will eat a lot before digging down to molt. Their eyes will look cloudy when they're ready to molt. Your crab seems like he's just destressing, he should be fine

Some of my crab's favorite food items are honey, applesauce, peanut butter, hard boiled egg yolk, popcorn, coconut, and bananas.

Here is a safe list of safe food items.. viewtopic.php?f=25&t=92557

List of unsafe food items.. viewtopic.php?f=25&t=92556