every need for my crab's first molt.

[crazycrabber]

well just got back from a 19 day trip, my pet sitter told me that my smaller crab, richard shermit has been under the water dish for 3 days and hasn't come up even at night! she also said that my bigger one, marshawn pinch hadn't been bothering or trying to dig him up. she said that when she picked up the dish, richard shermit went all the way back into his shell. now pp hermit crabs molt with their shell on, so he is probably molting. what i want to be reminded of is everything that a hermit crab could possibly need help with in a molt and anything that i can do, because i will not let this first stressful time for them and me be a complete failure! i am going to conquer this molting period so i can avoid embarassment, pain, suffering, and depression and be a true crabber. i have owned my two crabs for a while now as you all know, but this is my first molting situation. i was planning on moving them to a bigger cage all today no matter how jetlagged i was from my red eye flight, but i don't have two cages worth of supplies, and don't quite have that money to spend. i thought ohhh goody isolation tank, but not enough supplies! my heating pad was going to get moved to the side of the bigger cage when i fixed it up, so i didn't want a molt until i got back from my trip. but my crab isn't buried too deep, and i have a heater that is very weak anyway. today i lifted the water bowl for a second and richard was a quite active! he also if i am not mistaken looked a tad bigger, but it had only been three days! i know that i can put a different water bowl in the other tank, gladware tupperware, and since it is deep i brought some pretty pebbles from the beach for escape routes. i also got more food shells from the beach and little water dishes to put in it so they can smell the food, but how do i go about getting this new cage done also? i have to wait for cholla wood and a massive heating pad to come in the mail, but i want to get started now! can i take out all the supplies except for the dishes and put it in the other tank and then put marshawn in the that tank? even without the heating pad for like one or two days? my dad said that even with the constant air conditioning the house temp stays around 74 degrees. please help.

[crazycrabber]

also is putting the playsand in the oven the best way to sterilize it?

[Geranium]

Molting - they know what they are doing, leave them alone to do it. Make sure your humidity and temperature are in the good ranges and your sub is sand castle. Now, surface molt is a different thing entirely. If you get in that position, post and one of us will advise.I don't sterilize the playsand before I put it in. My understanding is most don't. But if you feel you must then oven works.You can set up the sub and let it stabilize plus anything you're not using in the current tank. I would *not* move them until their heater is in place and functioning. Just because it is a certain temperature in the house, doesn't mean it will even be all that close in the tank. I would measure it to test the theory. But 74 is too low, by a degree okay but really what I have figured out is that mine like it between 80-85 and the 75 is the barebones minimum.