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Crabs not fully in substrate?
Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2020 10:37 am
by Mzlisa
Hellloooo!!! I have 3 crabbies (missing 1 idk where it went) who are on the surface but they haven’t dug to go down into the substrate. For the most part they just stay still.
1. this is normal? Usually my crabbies would go dig all the way into the substrate and would come up once in a while. Lately there’s 3 of them. 1 (Gyu) actually does this a lot.
2. I want to reset my tank but again I am still missing a whole crab. Can I dig for him? (We got them around September 15-18 and he haven’t resurfaced yet unless he’s not missing and I didn’t count correctly)
3. Do they hibernate? It’s getting cold where we’re at and th heat has been turned on but not sure if this is making them stay inside their shell.
4 since the 3 have surfaced what can I do to my tank as to not disturb or cave in the missing one?
Re: Crabs not fully in substrate?
Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2020 5:16 pm
by GotButterflies
#1 rule in crabbing....NEVER DIG
1) What does your substrate consist of?
IMO, for purple pinchers substrate, (playsand mixed with eco earth 5:1 ratio), should be 6 inches or 3 times the height of your largest crab (whichever is deeper). If you have Es substrate should be at least 10-12”. Substrate should be mixed with dechlorinated marine saltwater or dechlorinated freshwater to make the substrate sandcastle consistency. I personally mix mine with dechlorinated marine saltwater.
2) What do you mean by reset your whole tank? Do you mean rearrange? If you have a crab down you cannot do this. Items cannot be picked up and moved if they are into the substrate for the fear of collapsing molting caves.
3) Crabs do not hibernate. They dig to molt, de-stress and to have fun. Molting can take weeks to months. Each crab's molting time can vary.
The only thing you can do is add 1" of substrate per 24 hours without moving items. You can also replace food and carefully scoop poop.
Re: Crabs not fully in substrate?
Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2020 9:06 pm
by Mzlisa
GotButterflies wrote: ↑Tue Oct 06, 2020 5:16 pm
#1 rule in crabbing....NEVER DIG
1) What does your substrate consist of?
IMO, for purple pinchers substrate, (playsand mixed with eco earth 5:1 ratio), should be 6 inches or 3 times the height of your largest crab (whichever is deeper). If you have Es substrate should be at least 10-12”. Substrate should be mixed with dechlorinated marine saltwater or dechlorinated freshwater to make the substrate sandcastle consistency. I personally mix mine with dechlorinated marine saltwater.
2) What do you mean by reset your whole tank? Do you mean rearrange? If you have a crab down you cannot do this. Items cannot be picked up and moved if they are into the substrate for the fear of collapsing molting caves.
3) Crabs do not hibernate. They dig to molt, de-stress and to have fun. Molting can take weeks to months. Each crab's molting time can vary.
The only thing you can do is add 1" of substrate per 24 hours without moving items. You can also replace food and carefully scoop poop.
My crabs barely come out of hiding why do you think so?
Re: Crabs not fully in substrate?
Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2020 5:29 pm
by Crabadoo2
There are loads of reason like, destressing, moulting, just for fun and stuff like that.
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Re: Crabs not fully in substrate?
Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2020 5:31 pm
by Crabadoo2
There’s this crab i haven’t seen for like 2 months but there is no weird smell and i havent seen many of the others for a few day ,but theres hard proof that they’re eating. Just be patient.
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Re: Crabs not fully in substrate?
Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2020 11:39 pm
by Beckanai
I have 7 pps, all of them are currently underground to some extent. One just digs down but comes back out at night cuz the food will be moved and eaten, another used to dig down during the day and come out early evening before he finally went down all the way.
The ones that seemed to only go down far enough to still have their shells sticking out, were the ones that came out at night.