Weird Crab Death

[Peekaboocrab]

Hi all,

My family and I are new crab owners. We started with a pair, because I read they are social animals. One of the crabs never took to our home and we noticed it never ate, I placed multiple bowls of food in enclosure. Still we woke up to it passing. After that we had the one crab. It just seemed sad. It wasn’t moving around like it normally did. We decided to get more crabs. We have a good size tank so I decided to get 3 more. At first I can tell the original crab was displaying his dominance. He would post up on the food bowl and one time I witnessed alittle claw scuffle. I looked for really aggressive behavior and was ready to separate if needed. After a few days they were all sleeping together, so I figured they figured it out. Then a few weeks after we got the new crabbies, we noticed the original crab buried itself. I figured it was molting or was stressed and needed a break. I read this process could take weeks and to not disturb them. Well after 6 weeks I decided I needed to check. As gently as I could I slowly moved the sad back to discover it had passed. Was soooo sad. This crab was so healthy, beautiful, and strong. What happened? Did it just give up because we got the other crabs? Did it suffocate? It didn’t look like it was trying to molt. It’s like it just gave up. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.

[hermitsinnc]

Unfortunately, many crabs die soon after we get them from PPS (Post-Purchase Syndrome). They have been through a lot to make it to us, and sometimes it's just too much, even if they seem healthy.