Is this normal? Concerned.

[Xenpurgisnachtt]

In my crabitat, my 2 medium crabs have been staying in their skull hide for long period of times and I'm not sure if I should be concerned; later today I plan on adding new decor and adding more substrate ( exo terra's plantation soil ) because my substrate has gone extremely shy of 6 inches in some areas and would like to get it up to around 8-12 for reassurance. Is it normal for healthy crabs to stay in their hides for extremely long periods of time? ( 20+ hours ) I'm an extreme night owl so I'm constantly up all night so I'd for sure hear or see them.


I'm unsure if one of both of them are going to go through a surface molt since my substrate has been accidentally overstatured; I've had them for over a month now and none of them have gone through a molt yet. I really don't want to put new decor and substrate in if that's sadly the case.


https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/ ... 180545.jpg

[GotButterflies]

If your substrate is oversaturated that needs to be fixed asap. You don't want a bacterial bloom.

I would recommend adding coconut substrate asap. I personally like the bricks because you get more for your money. Are you doing any playsand? You can do a great playsand ratio of 5:1, or whatever works for you. If your two crabs are up, very gently move them to another container while mixing the substrate. When you pick up your substrate and make a fist, You don't want to be able to squeeze any water from it. It should be sandcastle consistency. Can you pick up playsand from a local Lowe's or Home Depot?

How did your substrate become oversaturated? Are you misting too much? Have you filled out the emergency template before? If you haven't and want to, we can help you figure out what is going on

[Xenpurgisnachtt]

Sadly I won't have any access to play sand any time soon. And I think it's from me dumping the water out of their freshwater/saltwater bowl into it when it gets extremely dirty which I'm no longer doing that. I'll get my bricks later tonight.

What's the best way to get them ?

~

1. What kind of substrate is used in your tank and how deep is it?

EE, though tonight I plan to get exo terra's plantation soil. When I first threw EE in the tank, I had a good bit more then 6 inches though it's settled to less then 5 and due to my oversaturation issue I plan to add more to help balance it out and get to roughly 8-12 inches. Yesterday I did a fairly good wringing out of some of the oversaturated substrate.

2. Do you have gauges in the tank to measure temperature and humidity? If so, where are they located and what temperature and humidity do they usually read?

I keep my gauge directly in the center of the tank. My temperature is sadly very moody and I keep my AC on due to health issues, so usually it drops to 70 degrees, though I typically easily fix any heat problems by letting my heater run, which brings it up to 78-80 degrees. Humidity is a constant 77-80%.

3. Is a heat source used in the tank? If so, what?

Zoo med heat pad. 20 gal. Above the substrate.

4. What types of water are available (fresh or salt) and how is the water treated (what brands of dechlorinator or salt mix and what ratio is
used to mix it)?

Sadly all of this time I've been using bottled freshwater and today I'm finally get prime. For saltwater I usually end up getting what's available, All Living Thing's saltwater or Hydrate saltwater. However, my crabs very very rarely touch freshwater. I stay up very lately typically and I haven't seen them once touching the freshwater.

5. What kinds of food do you feed and how often is it replaced?

Primarily freeze-dried food as I don't have often access to fresh food. I had to recently scrap my relatively recent bought food as it had copper sulfate.

Freeze dried crickets, mealworms, bloodworms, and shrimp.

All living thing's medley food. ( Pellets, Mealworms, and sun shrimp. Already checked to make sure there wasn't any copper sulfate. )

All living thing's dried vegetables

All of these I typically tend to switch around and made combinations with each other, and whenever I can get fresh food I'll throw it in there, currently I'm lucky right now so there's green grapes and tiny apple slices right now. I always throw vitamin/calcium powder on everything very modestly. I also mist everything to go ahead and start softening them up.

6. How long have you had the crab and what species is it, if known?

Slightly more than a month. and PPs.

7. Has your crab molted, and how long ago did it happen?

None of them has molted yet and none of them haven't really dug much as of late.


8. What type of housing are the crabs kept in, what size is it and what kind of lid is on the housing?
20 Gaquariumiam. Plastic LED hood.

9. How many crabs are in the tank and about how large are they?

3 crabs. 1 large 2 mediums. Planning to try to get either another PP or E soon on Wednesday hopefully, If I find an E I'll need to find a way to get a more constant 80f+ temp. I have a 20 gal tank. I got the first three in natural shells from the beach due to the lack of any adoptions in my area. I'm aware of the potency for PPS.

10. How many extra shells are usually kept in the tank, if any?

Haven't counted but with them not touching the oldest bunch, I just got a whole bunch of new shells that just came in, so in total I have likely 20+ or something among those lines. 16 are currently in there right now but due to the lack of activity only my large has checked out the few he has open sadly. Only one of them from what I've seen has bothered trying out new shells.

11. Have there been any fumes or chemicals near the crabitat recently?

Nope.

12. How often do you clean the tank and how?

Haven't had a deep clean yet but I often spot clean for any knocked over food or feces.

13. Are sponges used in the water dish? If so, how are they cleaned?

No.

14. Has anything new been added to your crabitat recently?

Few mosses, plan to replace the coco hut tonight, add cholla wood, and hopefully get a full on moss pit going soon.

15. Is there any other information you would like to share that might be helpful (anything that is regularly part of your crab care, playtime, bathing, etc.)?

Only my large one has been semi-active and been climbing around. He hasn't molted either or bothered to try on any shells yet. He's currently in a apple murex shell, and he has 2 large turbos ( I think ) that I believe he can fit, and 1 large, or possibly XL or Jumbo moon/bubblemoon shell. Yesterday I went in the tank to grab substrate by itself for a good while I went to the bottom and wrung some of it out, and I think it's helping.

16. Please describe the emergency situation in detail.

As of recent times, my crabs haven't been very active, but more so my two mediums. They're not dead but they certainly don't pop up at all, I'm about to finally add proper substrate levels and toys but they haven't come out for 20+ hours. I know the smaller male is alive; they haven't dug at all as of late and due to me pouring EE-filled water in the sub, I believe it's became quite oversaturated, more so at the bottom. ( I am not doing this anymore. ) I can't really tell what's going on if they're trying to do a surface molt or something else is wrong. I'm afraid of stressing them out more then I already potenially am. When I took them out of the skull yesterday, I was doing so to try and wring out some of the water from the substrate.

[Xenpurgisnachtt]

Bad news, I won't be able to get new substrate or prime tonight,