Visible molt

[beastyhylian]

Hey guys. Two of my crabs went down to molt today! I'm a new crabber and it's so exciting hearing them dig around. I'm not 100% sure they're both molting, but one of them has dug down and hit the corner of the tank, revealing himself. He's been there for about 20 hours just hanging out. He has moved a little bit closing most of himself off from outside light, but I can still peek at him and see him digging around and doing a little hermie dance! It's super cute, but I figured that he probably wants total darkness to molt. I've been covering the hole up with an old gift card so no light gets through it. Is that a good thing to do or should I leave him a window to the outside world? He's been actively digging or turnin around or something, just not moving too much position wise. Thanks!

[KayedeeLove<3]

Some people cover them, I don't. Just because I like to see them and feel like they will cover it if they feel like it! Also I've found they tend to come up soon after they open up a window! Hopefully you'll see a familiar set of antennae soon

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[soilentgringa]

I cover up windows just because the molting hormone (ecdysone) works best in complete darkness. They wouldn't have any light coming in underground in the wild, so I just do it to be safe.

They usually do backfill windows at some point though, but not always.

Crabs are weird.

[CallaLily]

I never bother to cover "windows." In my experience they usually fill them in anyway, if they are indeed going to molt. Then they often open up a window after they're finished and are about to resurface.

[soilentgringa]

I think that I do it out of paranoia, lol. Star Lord had a window and the Squid kept peeping at him while he had the window open. He ended up dying during the molt so I just always cover up the windows now.

Please note that is just probably me being paranoid and having anxiety issues. They do backfill their holes and obviously know more on how to handle their own molting processes than we do.

[CallaLily]

If I had the same experience, I would probably cover too. It certainly doesn't hurt anything to cover windows.