Molting questions

Bender · Post by **Bender** » Fri May 18, 2012 9:14 am

We have two down for molting. I know darkness is important, but both are down along the glass so they have a window? Should I cover that? They are both down several inches.

And just a suggestion from a newbie, it might be an idea to have a molting sticky with all the basic info. I know it's on the care sheets because I finally looked there but it also says on there to do an iso tank... Might be helpful!

kuza · Post by **kuza** » Fri May 18, 2012 9:38 am

yes, just put something over it for now and try not to peek too much.

goodmorningmylove · Post by **goodmorningmylove** » Fri May 18, 2012 9:46 am

If you covered the areas where they are it might help them a bit.

As far as an ISO tank goes... I think it's more of a preference than a necessity (unless you have a large number of crabs in one tank). I don't iso either of mine when they molt. They normally go down for their molts within a week or two of each other. When they both go down I just check under the tank to make sure they're not too close to each other.

beccaviolett · Post by **beccaviolett** » Fri May 18, 2012 10:03 am

I have a 10gallon as an ISO for now, but i dont like using it, one of my newbies went down the day i got the 40gallon set up.... of course.

DragonsFly · Post by **DragonsFly** » Fri May 18, 2012 8:39 pm

As long as you have deep enough substrate and a large enough tank for all crabs to have their own molting tunnels/burrows without interfering with each other, and feed good sources of protein and chitin regularly, it's fine for them to molt together; you don't need to iso for regular molting; you just want it in case you have a surface molter, or if you have one get attacked while molting.

Happy Crabber · Post by **Happy Crabber** » Fri May 18, 2012 8:57 pm

DF- can you remind me where chitin is found? Is that shrimp shell and sponges? Thanks

CrabbyMom33 · Post by **CrabbyMom33** » Fri May 18, 2012 9:33 pm

I use a post-it or 2, plus I try not to peak more the 2 times a week.

DragonsFly · Post by **DragonsFly** » Sat May 19, 2012 3:45 pm

hermitmommy wrote:DF- can you remind me where chitin is found? Is that shrimp shell and sponges? Thanks

Yes, natural sea sponges, shrimp tails (or freeze-dried whole shrimp), and also insects (e.g., freeze-dried crickets, etc.) are all good sources of chitin.

HCA: Hermit Crab Association