HELP!!!Why i my hermit crab digging where the other one is.

[ShadowJimmy107]

I have three hermit crabs and on the first day one of them dug him self under ground. I was cool with it because i know he was probably not molting and that he just is reliving some stress. I came home from school today and realized the other one started digging RIGHT next to were the other crab was so like 1/2 inch away. This started getting me worried because he did look pale and was not shiny so i knew he was going to molt at some point but my first thought was he was digging to eat him because maybe he did molt and i know other hermit crabs can eat him. I do have food in the tank and i know that you should NEVER dig up a hermit crab o what do i do HELP

[landlubber]

It's a bit of a hard one.....depends on the circumstance. Two crabs both molting it doesn't matter, because they'll be too busy saving up energy to molt than to bother each other. If the substrate is deep enough I wouldn't worry about it either. If you are feeding a daily variety of proteins its less of a worry too as they are less likely to eat their tankmates.

In my experience many de-stressing crabs molt at the same time, so it wouldn't surprise me if your fella is molting....

It's your choice because there is risk either way, but if it were me I would not dig.

[ShadowJimmy107]

thank you i JUST got my crabs yesterday so im still new but im not going to dig him up

[wodesorel]

Crabs can dig underground to the other side of the tank from where they started. Unless you can see them through the side or bottom, it's impossible to know where they are!