Buried...Then Up...Then Buried Again...

[Gimpdiggity]

Hi everyone.

I've had three small hermit crabs since about the second week of November.

After we got the three of them, the first night or two they were very active. Then, two of them disappeared completely, and the third one seemed to just kind of lightly bury himself in the sand about halfway, and not move very often.

A couple of weeks ago, two of them suddenly emerged. They looked freshly molted (from what I've read) and were pretty active...food, water, salt water, moving around, climbing.

About the time the two of them came out, the third one disappeared completely, so I'm assuming he went down to molt himself...so I'm not really concerned about him.

What does have me a bit confused is that ONE of the two that came back up ended up moving basically from one side of the crabitat to the other after a few days, and then seemed to bury himself again...and I haven't seen him in roughly 10 days now. The OTHER one that came up at the same time has been out multiple times every night in that same timeframe.

I know that they are two different crabs because one has a spiny shell, and one has a smooth shell. The smooth shelled one is the only one we've seen since I watched the spiny shelled one bury himself on the opposite side of the tank.

Is it normal for them to come up from a molt, then pretty much immediately bury themselves again for one reason or another?

Nothing in the crabitat smells, other than the moss that we are using for some extra moisture retention.

Should I be worried, or is this pretty much business as usual for hermies??

Thanks!
Jeff

[soilentgringa]

They can pull back to back molts sometimes, or they may just be digging for the fun of it. I have a few that I rarely see up top.

[courtbri]

I just had one reemerge after back to back molts within the hour. I've been so worried about him. He did a 1 month molt and was up for a week before going back down for another 4 weeks. I thought for sure I had lost him this time. My heart was broken but I just seen him back up!!


Crabbing for 2 years-still obsessed! 6 total crustacean kids. Gave up trying to tell them apart but I love them all.