Odd behavoir in new crabs

[Cydonia1]

I adopted 4 new smalls last night from a person. They weren't kept in "bad" condition, it was a large KK with about 2-4 inches of EE.

When they walk around my tat, they drag themselves? sometimes. One seemed to run his face are across the shell pit while walking, and seemed to struggle walking down this small hill of sub up against the driftwood. He stayed facing downward, stepped slowly and seemed to do some sort of tripping motion where he fell forward a bit. It was *just* some sub angled against the wood, not a dramatic incline at all. Then one took a dive out of the highest shower caddy, landed upside down, sat there for a lot longer than any of my others have, then dragged its self back up, then righted its self and walked normal up the driftwood. And if it means anything, they kept stacking on top of each other. During the ride home 3 were standing on top of each other, and when I first set them down one tried to stand on the second crab I just sat in next to him. Then he saw all of the new things so he abandoned that effort. Earlier this morning one of them was laying face down behind the saltwater bowl, thought he was dead for a second! I'm not sure if these are separate crabs or just 2 or 3 of them, but one is a much lighter color and is missing a bp (she said a bad shell fight a couple of months ago.
I can't tell if it's a stress related thing, nutrition, molting or other "issue". I bought three other crabs that are between dime and nickle sized and they've never done this.

Is this something to worry about?

[CallaLily]

The sluggishness (face down, slow movements) could be from coming molt. Do you know when their last one was? Were any dug up? I had a crab that was disturbed before actually molting but he was like a wind up toy that had wound down. He did manage to dig down very shallow and molt successfully. Keep a close eye on them and have ISOs ready just in case.

The piling on top of each other sounds pretty normal to me.

[Cydonia1]

She'd owned them for 6 months, and I think she said that they'd molted once with her. But the one that's missing the bp doesn't have a jell limb yet and they're awful small so I'm assuming it's been a while. Two are MIA, little lopsider and suicide jumper are the only ones left up right now.
And I've got plenty of ISO's now, I have the kk from when I got our originals, one from the first adoption, then she gave me a large KK and two small ones, then the empty 10gl. I love having all of these because we rent so we will have to move someday. I kinda want two or three more medium ones but I'm defiantly not going to pay store prices.

[Cydonia1]

The rest of them have dug down/ back up and aren't doing this anymore, but the one missing his BP is getting worse.
He keeps getting stuck in a shallow hole up against the wall it was cute the first time, he was walking along, fell into it and struggled to get back out of this pit that's no deeper than he is taller. But then he did it again. And again. And it happened again today. He's also moving extremely shutter-y? When walking towards the hole today his legs kept jerking and moving, he'd stop and his whole shell would rock forward then he'd shutter step forward. He was looking into the little pit when I walked away a minute ago, after his walking malfunction.
He tried to dig down into that hole and cover himself yesterday, but he only dug deep enough where the sides of his shell was covered, you could still see the spiral. Kinda like he just threw dirt over himself. The sub is 12 inches of sand (that end is regular and coarse grained) and some EE on the top. Should I watch for a surface molt? I don't see why he'd pull one, but he's definitely acting wrong.

[CallaLily]

Is he still partially buried? If so, I would carefully place a clean 2 liter soda bottle with the bottom cut off and top open over him to keep him safe from the other crabs. It's possible he didn't have the energy to dig further so he could molt safely. If he's up again, I would still isolate him. Keep conditions right and try not to disturb him. Hopefully he'll make it through a molt and be ok.

[YYWW]

I agree with isolation, since he can't move around freely. He woukd have a slim chance of escaping an attack or even bullying.
You might even dig a hole for him and drop him in, and cover with a clamshell half. The darkness will help him molt. Just make sure he gets to drink water beforehand, both types.


Crabbers unite!!!

[Cydonia1]

He came back up when he tried to dig, and he's still hovering over the hole he dug yesterday. I'll isolate him but I need to know where. I have the 10 gallon with alot of sand (haven't measured) and a heating pad on the back, or I have KK's that I can set up today and stick one of the extra heating pads onto the back.
It's getting cold here and the 10 gallon is by the door, under the lizard's stand so I'm afraid it'll get too cold. With one of the kk's I can stick one of the extra UTH's on it, I think the biggest one is too big and the small one is really puny though. I do have a person heating pad that I could use. With the KK He'd go in my room on my desk instead of the floor so I could probably wrap him up to keep heat and humidity in.
Of course the one week a year it's cold in central Florida I need to ISO a crab.......

[Cydonia1]

Im going to start posting in emerency, I got him moved into my bedroom in an iso

[YYWW]

Don't be too shy to get a perfectly sized tupperware and punching holes in the lid. Tupperwares make great ISOs too!


Crabbers unite!!!

[aldebaron0626]

Keep Tupperware in main tank where conditions are right.


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