Crabs constantly burying themselves, what's happening?

[moongirl14]

I recently adopted several hermit crabs from a friend who could not care for them, I myself have never owned hermit crabs and I could use your help! I believe they are purple pinchers, but I am not sure. I have only had them for about two weeks, but since they first day they continuously bury themselves. They will dig down for a couple of days, and then come back up on their own. They never stay down long enough to molt, so I am worried it might be stress related, what am I doing wrong? They are in a 10 gallon tank with a heating pad adhered to the side, I have a humidity and temperature gauge and I make sure to spray the tank daily. The temperature gauge usually reads around 75 on average and the humidity gauge changes a lot, getting up to 100% when I spray, but down to 60% when I haven't sprayed in a while. They have fresh and saltwater and I give them hermit crab food along with fresh food each day. They have lots of extra shells to choose from, and two have already changed shells without molting. I want to make sure my crabs have proper care, so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
[img]file:///C:/Users/kitte/Pictures/Pets/IMG_20171211_052054441.jpg[/img]
[img]file:///C:/Users/kitte/Pictures/Pets/IMG_20171211_032621062_HDR.jpg[/img]

[GotButterflies]

Hello Welcome to the HCA!

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Your crabitat seems overcrowded to me...several=how many? I personally like 1 crab per 5 gallons if they are up to medium. Yes, they could be destressing, but also this is normal crab behavior. I also think 75 is too low for them. These are tropical creatures. The lowest I let my crabitats get is 79 (at night) High of 85 (during day). Humidity is VERY important. These creatures have modified gills and need the humidity to breathe. I keep my humidity at 99%. Minimum humidity should be at 80. To get humidity up you can put in moss pits for them to hide in, bubblers in their water bowls, add a glass top, or put saran wrap, press n seal or seal your top with packaging tape if you have a mesh lid. What kind of saltwater do they have? They need marine saltwater (like to make a saltwater fish tank).

[Hermiesguardian]

Hello Welcome to the HCA!

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Please fill out this template: viewtopic.php?f=27&t=46102

Your crabitat seems overcrowded to me...several=how many? I personally like 1 crab per 5 gallons if they are up to medium. Yes, they could be destressing, but also this is normal crab behavior. I also think 75 is too low for them. These are tropical creatures. The lowest I let my crabitats get is 79 (at night) High of 85 (during day). Humidity is VERY important. These creatures have modified gills and need the humidity to breathe. I keep my humidity at 99%. Minimum humidity should be at 80. To get humidity up you can put in moss pits for them to hide in, bubblers in their water bowls, add a glass top, or put saran wrap, press n seal or seal your top with packaging tape if you have a mesh lid. What kind of saltwater do they have? They need marine saltwater (like to make a saltwater fish tank).

Speaking of humidity...I have 2 moss pits. I mist daily. I have a bubbler only in one pool. I do have a mesh lid, but it is covered with plexiglass and now reflexit covering the whole lid. I still cannot get the humidity even near steady at 78% let alone higher. Can I mist the hemp hammocks too?

[aussieJJDude]

Also going with above, its normal crab behaviour to dig. Each crab is different and has different behaviours - come like to dig during the day and come up at night, others like to climb and hide some just do whatever....

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[LadyJinglyJones]

You can mist the hammocks, but having done this initially myself, did not find it very effective.

Ten gallons can be a total pain to keep humid enough! I feel for you.

A second bubbler line (or just using a splitter ) to the salt pool may help. Moving the fresh pool nearer to the heat can also work (increases evaporation ). It's also possible if your room air is very dry that the bubbler is pushing more dry air into the tank... it's possible that a deeper pool can ameliorate this effect.

I'd move the water over to the heart as a first step. See where that gets you.

[Hermiesguardian]

You can mist the hammocks, but having done this initially myself, did not find it very effective.

Ten gallons can be a total pain to keep humid enough! I feel for you.

A second bubbler line (or just using a splitter ) to the salt pool may help. Moving the fresh pool nearer to the heat can also work (increases evaporation ). It's also possible if your room air is very dry that the bubbler is pushing more dry air into the tank... it's possible that a deeper pool can ameliorate this effect.

I'd move the water over to the heart as a first step. See where that gets you.

I think you're combining 2 posts. Lol. I was asking about humidity. I have a 40 gal tank. The pool is right up against the heat. And the side with the bubbler is the side that has lower humidity.

[aussieJJDude]

Is your pools deep? If shallow, the bubbles tend to be very large and as a result outside air is easily pushed into the tank... deeper pools could fix this.


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[Hermiesguardian]

Is your pools deep? If shallow, the bubbles tend to be very large and as a result outside air is easily pushed into the tank... deeper pools could fix this.

They are small paint trays. The bubbler is on low.

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[aussieJJDude]

Is your pools deep? If shallow, the bubbles tend to be very large and as a result outside air is easily pushed into the tank... deeper pools could fix this.

They are small paint trays. The bubbler is on low.

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Whats the porosity of the airstone... large or small bubbles. How deep is the deepest end of the tray - they all have different depths.

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[Lewisthecrab]

Yeah digging is normal but what I do to retain humidity is I mist as much as I can and keep the lid shut TIGHT. It does pretty well at 94-ish% humidity Happy crabbing to us all!

[LadyJinglyJones]

You can mist the hammocks, but having done this initially myself, did not find it very effective.

Ten gallons can be a total pain to keep humid enough! I feel for you.

A second bubbler line (or just using a splitter ) to the salt pool may help. Moving the fresh pool nearer to the heat can also work (increases evaporation ). It's also possible if your room air is very dry that the bubbler is pushing more dry air into the tank... it's possible that a deeper pool can ameliorate this effect.

I'd move the water over to the heart as a first step. See where that gets you.

I think you're combining 2 posts. Lol. I was asking about humidity. I have a 40 gal tank. The pool is right up against the heat. And the side with the bubbler is the side that has lower humidity.

Oh, oops! Sorry both of you, I gotta pay closer attention!

Just a note about heavy misting - it isn't recommend generally as a long term solution because it can lead to floods. (And floods are no fun.)

[Hermiesguardian]

Is your pools deep? If shallow, the bubbles tend to be very large and as a result outside air is easily pushed into the tank... deeper pools could fix this.

They are small paint trays. The bubbler is on low.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

Whats the porosity of the airstone... large or small bubbles. How deep is the deepest end of the tray - they all have different depths.

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The stone is a small one. And the water depth is at most 2". Maybe 1.5".

[Hermiesguardian]

Oh, oops! Sorry both of you, I gotta pay closer attention!

Just a note about heavy misting - it isn't recommend generally as a long term solution because it can lead to floods. (And floods are no fun.)[/quote]

I'm gonna stick with only misting the moss pits.

[LadyJinglyJones]

The stone is a small one. And the water depth is at most 2". Maybe 1.5".

But are the bubbles comming from the stone big & kinda chunky, or more tiny and super fast? Smaller bubbles (that you get with a more finely porous stone) will likely help more with humidity. As airstone age they'll get, like, sort of rougher - the bubbles can get chunkier. And some are like that out of the package. There are narrow white airstone that I used ages ago (when I had a fish tank with an undergravel filter... yeeeeah.... I'm old ), I recall they seemed to have very fine bubbles. I wonder if something like that might help? Though I hesitate to recommend you spend money on an airstone that may make absolutely no difference.

(This is what it looks like, if you're curious: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00KK0S2 ... +aquariums)

Anyway, it may improve your humidity if you get bigger pools. It's worth a try. (You'll want the airstone as close to the bottom of the pool as possible. .. securing them with little suction cups may help with this... but never did for me, as the crabs just pulled them up when climbing the airline :roll:)
Not having to constantly mist is nice.

When you poke the sub is it dry at the very surface? (I'm just trying to get a sense of what your tat is doing, moisture-wise.)

[Hermiesguardian]

The stone is a small one. And the water depth is at most 2". Maybe 1.5".

But are the bubbles comming from the stone big & kinda chunky, or more tiny and super fast? Smaller bubbles (that you get with a more finely porous stone) will likely help more with humidity. As airstone age they'll get, like, sort of rougher - the bubbles can get chunkier. And some are like that out of the package. There are narrow white airstone that I used ages ago (when I had a fish tank with an undergravel filter... yeeeeah.... I'm old ), I recall they seemed to have very fine bubbles. I wonder if something like that might help? Though I hesitate to recommend you spend money on an airstone that may make absolutely no difference.

(This is what it looks like, if you're curious: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00KK0S2 ... +aquariums)

Anyway, it may improve your humidity if you get bigger pools. It's worth a try. (You'll want the airstone as close to the bottom of the pool as possible. .. securing them with little suction cups may help with this... but never did for me, as the crabs just pulled them up when climbing the airline :roll:)
Not having to constantly mist is nice.

When you poke the sub is it dry at the very surface? (I'm just trying to get a sense of what your tat is doing, moisture-wise.)

I can't really tell if the bubbles are chunky. Lol. But the stone is held down by the pebbles. I can't really do bigger pools. I only have a 40 gal tank. The surface sand is moist enough to hold sandcastle consistency though. I switched the guages with each other to see if they read the same switched. Lo and behold, now they are pretty much the same as each other. And higher. Lol. I also put a small blanket over the tank. That is helping. Heat finally reaching 79,80°. And humidity 80+! Woo hoo!