HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I have a crab at the bottom of my tank but he's been down there for a while. I can see him if I look at the bottom of the tank and his legs are sticking out, is he dead?

How long has he been down exactly.If you can be as close to exact with the timeline it would be really helpful.How large is he as size will play a role in how long a crab will be down for.Had you noticed any odd behaviors with him prior to him going down?Whats your temp and humidity levels been like since he's been down, sub par surface conditions can drive hermitcrabs underground where the conditions are much more favorable.

Well, he was down for about a week when I dug him up because I didn't know what to do about a buried crab. He was fine and crawled all over, but in the morning he was buried again. He has been buried for about one two weeks since and counting.The temp on the surface was 70 degrees F and it was not very humid, I have recently fixed that and it is currently humid and warm.He was acting normal before he went down.Please help this is my first molter

Never dig up a crab, now with that said i would give him about 1-2 months, as he could be molting nothing to worry about

I'm pretty sure he just molted because when I checked on him there was a bunch of claws and legs lying there with his shell and I think that is the exoskeleton. Again, this is my first molter so it is pretty cool.

It is quite possible that your crab did molt if you seen pieces of his old exo/shed skin claws. He probably went back down to finish eating those and to distress. It may be coming up at night also and your not seeing it. Crabs will eventually come back up and stay there when they're ready to.

I have recently checked on him and he has changed positions so he is fine and he is probably coming back up soon

He came back up today! My first molt is a success!!!

Awesome! Glad everything worked out ok.