HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hey gang! First and foremost, HELLO! This is my first post and I'm a pretty new crab enthusiast Sooo, I have 3 crabs in a 20 gallon long tank, my large crab started to exhibit signs of molting so I immediately set up an ISO tank.. After about 3 days in the tank, he burrowed and has been down ever since (it's been about 3 weeks). My little guy has also been showing signs but I put him in the tank but its been 4 days and he still does a lot of walking around, trying to climb the side of the cage.... he sometimes stays half out of his shell but his antenna's are going crazy the whole time. Should I put him back in the large tank with his brother until he seems even more... ready? And if so, what exactly would the next stages be? I wouldnt want my guy in the large tank to be unnecessarily lonely. Anyways, any advice would be awesome!! Thanks a lot!!!

@SteveO,hello and welcome to LHC.com on behalf of the administrative staff.Most of us don't iso our crabs prior to molt because it's just easier and nearly as safe to allow them to molt in the main tank not to mention the fact that catching a crab at the right time to iso it before it molts is nearly impossible when you have ten or more of em running around.lolSince the smaller guy is still acting pretty energetic and is wanting out I'd put him back in the main tank and let him be.The biggest pre-molt signs to look for are confused or crossed antenna, ashy color to the exo,low carry meaning the body is low to the ground and the legs are spread way out giving the apperance of a squashed bug and major change in eating and drinking habbits which can include a noticable increase in eating or drinking or a noticable decrease in drinking or eating.Hope this helps.

Trust Crabber85! He knows what he is doing. Anything he says I am sure it true.

i dont even put my crabs in an iso tankin the wild these guys would be with other crabs and so when they have to molt they do they get taken to another pace to molt...noi keep my sand in my regular tank very deep so they can bury and molt in that then sometimes i will place a small bascket(with holes in it) over the molting crab to keep other crabs off of it