HCA: Hermit Crab Association

As the title implies, I'm wondering what is the longest period of time you've had a crab stay down consecutively without molting. I have a new PP in my ISO tank that went down within minutes of being placed in the tank and has been down 45 days straight without molting or coming up for food or water. I know this because he's windowed at the bottom of the tank and I can see him. I know de-stressing can take a while, but you'd think he'd be hungry or thirsty by now. I guess he takes his chilling out seriously.

Can you see him clearly enough to be sure he hasn't molted? Do you see movement?

Yeah, I can. The broken off tips of his legs are visible, so I know he hasn't molted and he can be seen moving. His antenna are active and he seems energetic.

Same here! One of our crabs was down for 35 days. He wasn't that big and we got worried so we dug him up and he was just chilling down there. So strange.

Well at least you can see that he's ok! They can go quite a while without resurfacing for food or water. Also keep in mind he may be nibbling on the cocofiber or anything else he may have found or pulled down there.

My largest crab, Gregor, has been down since the day I got him, September 11th. I did see him on November 6th and he still hadn't molted. So that was...56ish? days down. He re-buried Nov. 6th and I haven't seen him since. He never had a window so I couldn't keep an eye on him, but I'm fairly certain he wasn't sneaking up in the middle of the night during that time frame because he's big enough to move a LOT of sand when he digs.

Coconut fiber makes sense but I know for a fact he didn't take anything else with him. He started digging in within 2 minutes of being put into the tank.

I've got a very dig happy guy and he LOVES to bury himself for very extended periods of time if he's not asleep in his terra cotta pot, I should post the story one day of how he escaped the tank and molted under the dryer without a shell...

Drakezilla wrote:I've got a very dig happy guy and he LOVES to bury himself for very extended periods of time if he's not asleep in his terra cotta pot, I should post the story one day of how he escaped the tank and molted under the dryer without a shell...

Need to hear this!

@Drakezilla, did he survive? Now we all need to hear the story.

Should I tell it here or make a new thread? I don't wanna thread jack!

Here is fine with me.

I had an Indo down for about 9 months once. I assumed he had died but found him alive during a deep clean. He was in rough shape and did die shortly after that.

63 days down now without coming up and without molting. He's taking "chillin" to a level I've not seen before.