Dead? Or Molting?

[Crabster5]

We have 5 crabs but 3 of them have been molting for 7+ months. (The other two are molting now but they've not been gone too long so I am not worried about them). I am concerned because the 3 have been gone so long. Unbeknownst to us our warmer gave out for some unknown period of time during the winter months. Although we used the heat lamp every day for some portion of the day I am unsure if the molting crabs stayed warm enough and I am worried that they have died but I don't want to just dig them up and I'm not sure exactly where they are located anyway. I am not sure what this "death smell" that people have referred to smells like but I don't smell anything different in their enclosure. Should I just keep waiting and hope they return someday? I suppose if they have died there's nothing I can do about it anyway so there's really no point in digging them up (and possibly disturbing the two that are definitely molting now). The shells that I had in there are all buried and to be honest I'm not sure they are big enough if they've grown a lot so could that be a reason why they are not returning? Any advice would be very appreciated. Thank you!

[curlysister]

If you have other crabs down right now, I would not dig. Like yo usaid, if they ar edead there's nothing you can do - and digging might put the others at risk.

[StarGirlxo]

The bigger they get the longer the molt.

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