Molters found during deep clean - question

[CrabbyMom33]

OK, so for those of you who have ISOed molters in containers, what do you do if right after you put them in the dug out cave in the container and covered the hole they then dug out of the cave? I have a small PP that I found, put it in a indent in the sand in a container, covered the hole with a shell, and put the container (lid on, with holes) in one of the tanks. So now the crab is crawling around the container looking at me. I think it just dug down in the last couple of days. Do I leave it in the container? I could put her loose in the ISO 10 gallon where Peanut the teeny power molting is back down, but the substrate is only a couple of inches in there, not really deep enough for this small/medium

[CrabbyMom33]

I made a decision and hopefully didn't create a second problem. I pulled the teeny E out of the 10 gallon ISO (she was up last night so I knew that was safe), added old substrate from the 90 to get the 10 gallon to 4" of substrate, then put both the teeny E and the small PP who I found dug down. I'll keep an eye on them since they haven't met before, but I suspect both will just dig down.

[DragonsFly]

That sounds like a good call to me, CrabbyMom. Best wishes; hope it turns out well for everybody!

[gpw9167]

I hope it all works out.

[CrabbyMom33]

So far, so good. It's actually pretty funny. Peanut has climbed to the highest point in the tank, the top of a flower and is sitting there looking down on the PP. They only have a bit more than 2/3 of the tank. I have a container with one of my molters in there. That molter was a large E that had just shed it's exo so I figured having it in the calmer tank would be best.

[CrabbyMom33]

A new development...Moe, my small/med E also decided to dig back up from the ISO container that was in the 55. I guess my lesson is that a molter that recently dug down probably won't stay down in a molting cave that is covered.

So I moved the molting container that was in the 10 gallon to the 55, dumped the substrate from Moe's ISO container into the end of the 10 where the container had been and move Moe in there. Now Peanut (teeny E), The Baby (small PP), and Moe (small/med E) will all hang out in the 10 gallon until the 90 is set back up. They have room to dig down and molt if they decided to go back to doing that. Now I have to just hope that Moe will leave Peanut alone. Moe is my little trouble maker!

[chicklet]

I have a similar challenge. I had about 2 inches of EE in my tank, and knew I needed to change the tank. I was switching over to a sand/ee mixture that I mixing up. When I started to change the tank, I noticed that one of my hermies had actually buried and molted. I have no idea HOW he buried in such little substrate. (I know, I was a bad hermie mom for letting it get so low.... I was lazy... what can I say???) I desperately needed to change the tank, and clearly they're wasn't enough EE available, but needed to protect my vulnerable hermie. So here's what I did. I would love feedback from other more experienced people.

I left my molting hermie where he was, and left his current EE around him, probably about a 3 inch diameter. To protect him from the new substrate, I covered him with a cocohut after I cut a bigger opening on the side for him to get through easily. I filled all the new substrate around him & the cocohut, and made sure that the hole on the top of the cocohut was not covered so he could continue to get air easily. But put some moss over top of it so it stays darker. It's been about 2-3 weeks since I did this and he is still under. I hope he is ok, and feels safe, but most importantly can find his way out. I'm anxious to make sure he's ok, but I know it's best to just leave him. Do you think I should check on him, do anything different, or did I just plain mess it up enough already???

Interestingly enough, the night I put the new substrate in, my other hermie buried that evening, so apparently he was waiting for me to be a better mom!