Digging, staying for months, then dead! HELP!

[Winter1]

So last December I had gotten a large hermit crab then it buried itself for like, 3-4 months then come to find out that it was dead! I hadn't touched it or anything, assuming it was molting, but I saw his shell had moved a tiny bit so I looked and he had been dead a while. Like a long time. And one of my other hermit crabs has buried itself and I think it's dead. I looked at it from underneath the tank and I pretty sure it's dead( it wasn't moving at all and it seemed to be halfway out of its shell and has been in the ground for a month or two.)
My thank is always 73-76 degrees and 70-85 percent humidity. I have 4 inches of Eco earth. Tank is 10 gallons.

[CallaLily]

Being the crab passed during his first molt with you, it was likely due to PPS. More info here. It's a tough journey for them, from being collected from the wild on through to arriving at their new home. Especially during the cooler months and for the bigger guys.

I do recommend you read through the Caresheets and FAQs section: viewforum.php?f=51. Your temps are a tiny bit low. Also larger crabs need deeper substrate and more space than a 10 gallon provides.

Don't give up on your other crab just yet! One month under really isn't long at all for a molting or destressing crab. Shed exoskeleton can easily be mistaken for a dead crab, if you've never seen it before. You can find more info on molting in the link above.

[Winter1]

Omg the other hermit crab, that I thought was dead, just came up!! It's been almost 5 months (which I take as a pretty long time for a medium sized crab that I had for 6 months before) I'm so happy and I'm thinking about upgrading my tank. I really hope I can because my best friend has 9 hermit crabs in a 10 gallon tank and had horrible heat and humidity. I really want to adopt some of hers. But tank you for the info! Glad I didn't give up on it!

[KayedeeLove<3]

Everybody loves a happy ending!

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