HCA: Hermit Crab Association

My Hermie was moved to an Iso tank and about a week later went under the sand to molt. He has been on the surface for almost a week and does not seem to sleep or eat. I have put favorite foods in and have kept everything pretty soft for him. He likes turkey and gravy baby food. I need help with the question of when to return him to the large crabitat with him 9 friends. Is he ready? He is still very light in color and I do not want him to get hurt by the others. He is awake in the night and awake everytime I check on him which is about every hour. What to do......Thanks

Hello kidid101, how long was your crab down for exactly and what size is it?Hermitcrabs quarter sized and smaller will successfully molt once every three weeks or so and will only be down for a week to a week and a half due to size.Hermitcrabs who are fifty cent size to golf ball will go down once every three to four weeks and will stay down a bit longer than the smalls usually around two to three weeks.Hermitcrabs larger than golf ball size will only go down once every six months to a year and will stay down one to two months depending on diet, body size and need for molt.You'll know your hermits ready to go back to the main enclosure when he's starts acting like a prison inmate trying to escape, he'll try every available route to get out and wont stop searching for an opening in the iso till he either finds one and makes a run for it or you put him back in the main.Newly molted hermitcrabs will have a strong iodine smell and typically have veracious appetites for several days after surfacing.If you don't notice either one of these signs then it's pretty safe to say that your crab either molted and is behaving erratically or simply didn't molt. If you have any other questions please feel free to ask.

Hi, my crab is about a quarter in size and definitely molted because I found pieces of the exo in the sand. He currently has all his appendages so I am sure the exo is his. I am going to return him to the crabitat tonight. I faced the iso tank against the crabitat and that must be why he is sitting facing that way. This is my first molt experience and am appreciative of your commentsThanks!

Sounds like a surface molt, how is your substrate is it damp or dry?

My substrate is moist ...like sand castle sand..I did return him to the crabitat last night and he went to the water and immediately went into the driftwood and slept. I think he may have just needed to be in his home to sleep. On another note...I found my other crab Junie buried in the sand. She went missing foe 2 days and I scooted the sand around to find her. I cleaned out my iso tank...fresh moist sand, food, water and appropriate shells and placed her in. She has already buried herself. I must have another molter. Do they all do this differently? I should mention all my crabs are purple pinchers. My biggest crab, which is abut baseball size looks very ashy but has been eating, drinking but not moving around a bunch....would this be the time to move him to iso tank?

I have several PP's the size of a baseball and their coloring is a little more faded than my smaller crabs so I don't think that in and of it's self is an indicator of a pending molt but if you notice a flattened out appearance aka squashed bug appearance to your crabs with confused or tangled antennas and a noticeable increase or decrease in appetite then you know the crab is indeed about to molt.