Possible under attack!

[p2gg86]

Hi all, I have a crab who been down in my original tank of 10gal when I first started crabbing. It’s been over two months since. As start-up, I have 4 crabs in the 10gal, 3 Es and 1 PP. The PP size is medium while 1 small E and 2 big E. When I acquired the 29gal. I was able to move 2 crabs with 1 PP and a big E remain in the 10gal because these two were burrowing. After about 6-7 weeks, in the 10gal, the big E came up and all looking like healthy. The big E was down after the PP yet up first. When he was about to came up, I noticed a heavily tunneling dig on the surface of the 3 inches Eco. And now it is over 3 more weeks since the big E up and moved over the 29gal. The medium PP is still no sight and no surface movement from the tunneling. I have a thought that the PP might had been attacked by the big E when they were down.

Questions: should I dig up to find out or should I continue to wait? If waiting how much longer before I should dig up?

The 10gal has the temperature 75-82 throughout the whole burrowing period. The humidity is 77-90 range.

[JoeHermits]

Don’t dig. Your PP could remain down there for months. Time wise, I personally don’t even get worried until the six month mark.

Have you moved your E to the 29gal, or is it still with your PP in the 10gal?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[curlysister]

I second what Joe said. Don't dig! There is no risk to waiting, but lots of risk if you dig him up mid-molt.

[p2gg86]

The E is moved out. The reason for this topic is that the PP might been already dead by an attack so it would be worthless on caring the “sand” pet. For the reason I believe it is dead because other bigger crabs I have had been molted and up in a shorter time period. Secondly, if he is alive there should be surface changes due to the tunneling dig because I saw this with other crabs too. So I need to make sure.

6 months time period is too long if he is dead which mean there is 3 more months of “sand” pet if no dig.... I’m sorry for not being to patient. I do not want to hurt any crab.

[wodesorel]

The problem is that there is no way to know if he is alive or dead until you dig, and if he is alive you could make him dead by digging him up.

I know it sucks to take care of an empty tank without knowing for sure, but it is the safest thing for him. Crabs can take a long time to molt sometimes, and there would be no indication of movement while that was happening. Molting crabs stay in one spot until they are done.

The longest a crab has been down being 8 months. That is an extreme. I personally will go looking after four months, but again, that is still within the known time frame of a molt and has some danger to it!

[crabby33]

Like everybody else said, please don’t dig up your crab. When crabs are showing pre-molt signs, I now consider that molting and they need to be left alone. Your crab will surface when it’s done.

[p2gg86]

Like everybody else said, please don’t dig up your crab. When crabs are showing pre-molt signs, I now consider that molting and they need to be left alone. Your crab will surface when it’s done.

As mention by the topic is a possible attack, thus reason's the dig up quest. In case of the attack, there will be no surfacing crab. Perhaps I should put the question as "how do I find out if the crab is alive after all the messes by other crabs who've been in the same tank."

[p2gg86]

I decided to do run another test. Right now, I have 2 crabs, Ellen (E) and Fishy (PP), currently are burrowing. They are under for almost 2 weeks now and I believe these two are down for their molts. I will wait for these guys to come up before what I should do for the medium PP. Perhaps I will post another thread for decision to make sure that I don't hurt my crab. Thanks all.

Edit#01: Ellen is a small E and Fishy is a small PP. These guys are cute!