Isolate a molter?

[GudaHermitCrab]

I've heard mixed messages about moving a molter into an ISO tank. Some people do, and some people leave them in the main tank. What do you do and what would you suggest?

Edit: I have no molter yet

[kuza]

if he's underground,leave him be.

[DragonsFly]

If you have a large enough tank for the number of crabs in it, and deep enough substrate for them to have their own space, I think the best thing to do is probably to let the crab alone. "First, do no harm." Digging up a molter can definitely harm it, so unless you have some reason to suspect the crab is in grave and imminent danger, best to trust that they know what they are doing; just maintain good conditions and sand castle quality substrate and practice patience.

[sontron]

If the crab is not under yet as you said, than it all depends on what you feel is best. If the sand is deep enough for a good molt, and there is room form multiple crabs to go under again, than I would leave the crabs in the main tank. If you think that the conditions are poor for molting, or for some reason you think it would just be safer for that particular crab, than if you want to, yes. Isolate the crab.

[DragonsFly]

The problem is, unless you've been keeping them forever and just get to have a sixth sense about it, the only real way to know they are molting is when they go down and stay down--and stay down--and stay down. Until they come back up. So, you'll know you have a molter when the crab doesn't come up for weeks or months. If they just go down and stay a day or two, they may just be de-stressing, or just hangin' out down there, and you'll only stress them out if you try to move them to an iso any time they do that. And once you are fairly sure a crab is molting (because he's gone down and has not come back up for a week or more), the last thing you want to do is to dig them up and move them (like I said, unless there is some deadly danger to their staying where they are), because this will certainly distress them, and possibly even kill them. So for the average crab-keeper, the safest thing is to just make sure your tank has the best possible set-up for the crabs to molt in, and let them decide when and how to molt. One of the long-term crabbers here said, "They know more about being crabs than we do." That's something to keep in mind with respect to any molting question. We're not their masters; more like their support staff. We're here to give them (to the best extent we can) what they need, so they can get on with the business of being crabs.

[wodesorel]

Yeah, but molting in captivity is a far cry from molting on a beach. My gut tells me that when it's time they get as far away from the group as possible before letting themselves become so vulnerable, but they can't do that when they live in a tiny little tank. (For the record - ANY tank is tiny by their standards - they wander for miles every night in the wild.) Molting in captivity is always a risk, and nearly all reported deaths of long-term crabs were while they were molting.

I think you'll find that nearly all crabbers these days choose to let them molt in the tank wherever and whenever they want. Like DragonFly said, it can be extremely hard to know just when a hermit crab is going to molt, so by the time you realize it, it'll be to late to do anything about it.

[CrabbyMom33]

I let mine molt in the tank. There is no way I could know for sure when someone is ready to molt. If I moved one that's not really ready to a molting tank, then I'd run the risk of that one digging up other molters. Like Wodesorel said, no tank is really as big as the area they have to work with in the wild, but I think the key is to have as deep of substrate as possible and manage the number of crabs to the size of the tank well.

That said, you can still have problems. I lost a large E that I found during my deep clean that appeared to have been interrupted during a molt. That was in a 90 gallon tank with 8" of substrate and only 13 crabs in the tank. Again, in my 29 gallon for my strawberries I had 10" of substrate and 6 crabs (4 large, 1 med, 1 sm) which was a bit crowded, but not horrible. I'm dealing with a straw that was apparently attacked during molting and has only parts of 2 legs remaining. No matter how hard we try it's not ideal for them to molt in a closed environment.

[DragonsFly]

Exactly. Once they are in captivity, all we can do is the best we can do, and pray for the best. When I said, "First, do no harm," I should have said, "First, do no FURTHER harm."

[GudaHermitCrab]

Well, I have just two PPs at the moment in a 10 gal. I was thinking that instead of moving the molter, I'd move the other crab into an ISO.

[deesjebeesje]

But how can you actually see that they going to molt?
I only know its because they go under the ground.

[DragonsFly]

The only way to know for sure they are molting is when they go under and stay under for an extended time. There are some signs that they may be getting ready to molt, like eating a lot more than usual, or taking a lot of marine salt water more than they usually do, but they don't always do these things.

[emberfusion]

The only way to know for sure they are molting is when they go under and stay under for an extended time. There are some signs that they may be getting ready to molt, like eating a lot more than usual, or taking a lot of marine salt water more than they usually do, but they don't always do these things.

It's true. *nods*
Each molt for each crab is different.

Sometimes we know by how they behave before hand and sometimes they just disappear and the next time we see them it's like "oh. hey there. have a nice molt?"

Honestly, I leave my crabs to do their thing on their time the way they see fit. I'm one of the crabbers who will only isolate if I've gotten a new crab or notice a problem with someone (such as a surface molt or an injury).

I mean, truth be told - everyone here has told you right. There's no way to keep track of all our crabs and to know 100% when they're going to molt every time. What it really comes down to is what you are personally more comfortable with.

But, as dragonsfly said, there are certain signs you can look for that your crab may or may not show. Check this out for some of the things you can look for to signal a molt: http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/pa ... dying.html