Crab Tunneling

[Justus_cuc]

Hey! I’m new here so I’m not sure how fast I’ll get a response, but, two of my hermit crabs have been tunneling, one of them have been for weeks, I feel I don’t have enough substrate for then to molt so I want to change it. Would it be okay for me to change the substrate? Or are they molting?

[Euroflower]

I’m pretty new at this too (about 6 months in). But here’s my best...

If your crabs are up, as in coming up every evening/night, then you’d probably be safe to add more substrate. If one of them has disappeared, then I wouldn’t change anything in the tank until they’ve surfaced and had a few days consistently coming up nightly.

[curlysister]

If you feel that you need to add more substrate, you can safely do that with the crabs down (no matter the reason they are down). As long as you don't pack it down, it won't harm the crabs or their tunnels. If you want to be cautious, you can add an inch or less per 24 hours.
THe only reason you would need to change out the entire substrate (ie- throw out what is there and change to all new sub) is if there is an emergency such as a flood or bacterial bloom.

[Justus_cuc]

If you feel that you need to add more substrate, you can safely do that with the crabs down (no matter the reason they are down). As long as you don't pack it down, it won't harm the crabs or their tunnels. If you want to be cautious, you can add an inch or less per 24 hours.
THe only reason you would need to change out the entire substrate (ie- throw out what is there and change to all new sub) is if there is an emergency such as a flood or bacterial bloom.

Thanks so much for responding, I’ll keep this in mind, I think I’m gonna wait just a little because I wanted to mix a bit more sand in with my substrate, I think I have a little too much coconut fiber in it at the moment. I just don’t want to disturb my little guys by pulling them up so I’m glad you could help.

[Justus_cuc]

I’m pretty new at this too (about 6 months in). But here’s my best...

If your crabs are up, as in coming up every evening/night, then you’d probably be safe to add more substrate. If one of them has disappeared, then I wouldn’t change anything in the tank until they’ve surfaced and had a few days consistently coming up nightly.

I’ve only had my crabs for about two months but I’m pretty good at keeping pets, I own a scorpion so I do have some knowledge on how to keep stuff like that. I’m probably gonna wait to see if they come up eventually, all I know is that one of them went down for a while, came up for a day, then went back down. The other one that’s burrowed basically burrowed as soon as I put it in the tank. Just a quick side note, I have six crabs.