Crabs Stay Underground All the Time

[Guest]

Ok I have 5 hermit crabs that all live underground ?? They are not molting since they do all come out in shifts and I "catch" each one every other day or so.The humidy is in the 70-80% range the temp. is in the 75-85 range. The sand is "sand castle" wet all the time.I have had them all for about 4-5 months now. The first month or 2 they all ( but one ) played everyday all over the place. The scaredy crab burried himself the first day and liturly hurls itself into its hole if it sees me...to the point of throwing its self off a stick to do it. So about month 3 all the rest burried down, I thought to molt but none of them are. they have a whole tunnel system that they are in and pop up to eat and drink. Are all crabs like this ??? What am i doing wrong ?? I have a empty tank all the time with the rare "sighting" it almost seems pointless to have them Is this a pre-molt phase ???

[Ren1216]

Ohhh I was laughing while reading about your scaredy crab hurling himself into his hole at the sight of you... sorry, probably not funny to you but it made me chuckle!Im not sure what to tell you about all of your crabbies staying underground, I sort of had the same problem of not seeing mine much when I only had 3, so I just went out and bought more. Now at least there is always someone "up" even though I have about 4-5 down molting at the moment. Maybe someone else with more experience can help you out with that part.

[jojo7]

Hermies are mostly nocturnal so you might not see them in the day...it could be possible that they are still destressing or in a premolt stage...i have one hermie that digs all over the tank before he finds the right spot to stay in to molt...

[Guest]

Several of my crabs have gone through long pre-molt stages. They pop at night and eat. Normally friendly crabs act "caught" when i lift the fabric covering the tank and find one above ground. Mine also will dig arond restlessly until they find a comfy place to molt. It reminds me of when I will toss and turn. I will peek in on the tank in the morning... and the substrate is rumpled/disturbed all over the place. I still somewhat new at this, but maybe you are doing something right. Possibly your crabs are feeling comfortable enough with their tank conditions to begin molting. lili

[Guest]

My PPs are almost always under, all but the tiniest one. They only come out at night. I have one Rug that's also almost always under, and then I have a straw that spends about half his time up and half down, and I also have a Rug and a Cav that are almost never under the surface. I found when I had more crabs that it was the exotics that spent most of their time on the surface and the PPs that I rarely if ever saw. I like to use the light from my cell phone at night to watch the PPs. It's not too bright and I can "spy" on them easier, and I'm able to aim it right on them wherever they are unlike the moonglow bulb I have but rarely use.

[Guest]

One good way that I've found to "lure" your crabs up to the surface more often is to feed them a more natural diet, rather than a commerical crab food. Since I started feeding mine things like fresh fruits and veggies, freshly prepared meats, fish, and eggs, whole grains, herbs and flowers I see quite a lot more of them. There's pretty much always at least two or three who come to the food dish less than 5 minutes after I put it in there, and there's pretty steady activity around the dish all night plus other activity as well-fed crabs check out the water pools and climbables and such.Crabs do also seem to go thru cycles where you'll hardly ever see one of them on the surface and all them climbing all over everything trashing the tank. And it is entirely possible that your crew is settling in for a mass molt, which means you're doing things right for them!