HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Sheldon went under for 2 nights, so I thought he was molting, but now hes back up again with the other crabs? My temperature was a bit low and my humidity quite high as I was messing around with bubble pools, different substrates, and a new heat lamp trying to get things where they should be. Everything is perfect now in terms of substrate, temp, and humidity, so perhaps he dug under because conditions were not right?? As soon as everything was fixed he came back up.

Do you think he was stressed about all the changes, and just wanted a bit of privacy?

He probably dug down to regulate his temperature and came back up when everything was back to normal upstairs. He might be a bit stressed (I would be if I were him lol) but I'm sure he'll be all fine and dandy now.

They like to dig, sometimes to cool off, sometimes to just hang out in solitude.

Actually, most of the time crabs bury, they aren't even going to molt! Here are some reasons why they may bury: molting (you can cross that off the list), unfavorable tank conditions (humidity or temp is too low or too high), or destressing. All of which the crab will be buried down for atLEAST a day or two. If they bury themselves just for the afternoon, it's most likely just for the fun of it!

Thanks everyone! He is my shyest crabby so I think he would be the most likely to be destressing!

The short answer - - because he can! The longer answer is that he might be destressing, just digging for fun, could be checking out a potential place to molt soon, might be digging down to deal with your changing conditions, or a number of other reasons.

queenie wrote:I am completely new at this but I notice that Yoshi spends many days buried and then comes up at night. If the humidity is a little high he doesn't dig down, if it's a little low he definitely digs down, but mostly he just goes down during the day.

Although since he got his new shell he spends more time in the biggest cave instead of buried. Hm.

Anyway, I think he just feels more protected when he's underground.

I made that up.

Good observations! I noticed that even though I have great tank conditions, my crabs will randomly bury, so I'm guessing it's just for fun. I also realized that, as I always say, "some crabs are more nocturnal than others." this isn't true, of course, because...well it's not really possible. But what I mean is that some of my crabs will literally only be active at night, and some will be active both day and night...even though they're all the same species!