Synchonized molting? Or something else?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Sep 14, 2008 10:34 pm

Hi, I'm still new enough to crabbing that I have a lot of questions.

I have 3 PP's, two I've had for about a month and a half, and the other I've had about a month. All three are generally pretty mellow during the day, but the activity tends to ramp up at night (typical crabbie behavior). About 5 days ago, all three crabs disappeared. They'd taken to hanging out under a log, and I came downstairs one morning to find they'd barricaded the opening with substrate. That evening, one came out, but has since disappeared.

None of the three have touched their food in this time (I mounded it and it is exactly as I left it). They've cleared out the log opening a bit on their own and I can see the shell of one buried under the log. The other two are incommunicado.

Is it possible that all three have gone into a molt at the same time? I don't think they're destressing, since they've all been together for a decent amount of time, but I could be wrong. I don't smell dead fish so I don't think anyone is dead, but it seems awfully odd to have all of them disappear all at once. Just in case they *are* molting, I don't want to go poking around, but I'm a little concerned about them.

Any advice or reassuring stories?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Sep 14, 2008 11:56 pm

i've got more crabs than my sig lists (due to "super-read-over-the-shoulder-hubby"

) and i haven't seen quite a few for quite awhile... all the littlest ones, save Little OhJay, diappeared together under the snake log thingy, and i haven't seen them since. they barracaded all the entrances, and if you look really closely in the sand, they have scratched "on pain of death, do NOT disturb" in crabanese right outside the door

so i guess this happens lol

Post by **Lady WolfStorm** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 3:52 pm

I've read stories on here where their crabs get "into synch" with one another and go down to molt about the same time. It gets to be a ghost tank for awhile.

Some crab owners end up feeling lonesome and go out and buy more just to "fill the tank" again. Do that only if you know you have the room, but keep in mind the new ones will probably join the club and dig down too.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:51 am

I've noticed that our crabs seem to go down either in March or September or both. That's not surprising because one is spring and the other fall. March is planting time and fall is harvesting time. This is a pattern in nature since forever.

We had all 11 of our crabs in the established colony up for about 4 months. Starting a week ago, they're going down. Right now we have only 4 crabs on the substrate.

So it's not really a matter of "sync" but rather the call of nature.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 8:33 am

Thanks for the advice! Hector has come back out on his own and was exploring a little bit, and he seemed to eat some of the shrimp I put out for them. Ulysses and Ajax are still hiding, but when I listen at night I can hear squeaking that sounds like somebody dragging a leg across a piece of plastic, or maybe that's just them chirping? There are a few tunnels and substrate mounds, but I can't tell exactly where they are, but since I can't see Hector making the noises I'm assuming it's the other two.

My light hood finally arrived so I have a day-glo and a moonlight bulb as of yesterday, and I'm hoping the light and steadier temperatures might increase their activity. Hector seemed to enjoy the moonlight bulb and was camped out on top of their log this morning when I woke up.

Unfortunately, now I have the horrible urge to get a fourth crab to keep the other three company, but I only have a 10-gallon and just bought the hood especially for that tank! Plus my husband already thought I was nuts for bringing Ajax home, I think he might balk over another little one (plus I'm really wanting a small crab, and that's probably not a good idea until I'm sure the crabitat has good enough conditions that the original ones survive!)