7/8 Crabs Buried For Extremely Long Time (please help!)

Sarah0459 · Post by **Sarah0459** » Thu Dec 10, 2015 10:36 pm

Hi Guys,
Sorry if I didn't post this correctly as it is my first post on this site, however I am growing increasingly concerned about my crabs. I have 8 Aussies and in around July they ALL buried themselves. I believe about 5/8 have had successful molts with me before and the other 3 were fairly new. It is now December and only one of them is up (my newest crab). This strikes me as strange as I believe if a crab were going to die during a molt it would be the newest one that has not molted with me before. During this time I have seen a couple come up and wander around for a bit but my newest crab is the only one to have stayed up for a some what extended period of time. Throughout these months I have only had a bad smell in the tank once, leading me to believe that at least one has died

. Some of my crabs are fairly large but did not take this long to molt previous times however some are fairly small and I wouldnt expect them to take this long. At first I thought it could have been the cold weather, July being winter here in Australia, but even then I have a thermostat in the tank, and now that it's summer I have no clue.
If someone could please help me I would appreciate it a lot!
Sarah

P.s sorry if this is really hard to read/ understand I was just trying to relay all the facts as best I could

Sarah0459 · Post by **Sarah0459** » Thu Dec 10, 2015 11:05 pm

Hi Guys,
Sorry if I didn't post this correctly as it is my first post on this site, however I am growing increasingly concerned about my crabs. I have 8 Aussies and in around July they ALL buried themselves. I believe about 5/8 have had successful molts with me before and the other 3 were fairly new. It is now December and only one of them is up (my newest crab). This strikes me as strange as I believe if a crab were going to die during a molt it would be the newest one that has not molted with me before. During this time I have seen a couple come up and wander around for a bit but my newest crab is the only one to have stayed up for a some what extended period of time. Throughout these months I have only had a bad smell in the tank once, leading me to believe that at least one has died

. Some of my crabs are fairly large but did not take this long to molt previous times however some are fairly small and I wouldnt expect them to take this long. At first I thought it could have been the cold weather, July being winter here in Australia, but even then I have a thermostat in the tank, and now that it's summer I have no clue.
If someone could please help me I would appreciate it a lot!
Sarah
*this was also posted in another thread due to the fact I wasn't sure which thread it best suited*

P.s sorry if this is really hard to read/ understand I was just trying to relay all the facts as best I could

Sarah0459

Maliblue · Post by **Maliblue** » Thu Dec 10, 2015 11:33 pm

What type of substrate do you use? Some kinds like calci-sand for reptiles can clump together and harden when wet, and make it difficult for molting crabs to dig back up to the surface.

Some other info would be helpful as well, such as your tank size, humidity level, and the depth of the substrate. Some larger crabs can take a really long time to molt, but even for a large crab 5 months is a very long time.

I think deaths during molting is something all crabbers dread. There's the urge to dig them up, but knowing that digging them up if they're alive could kill them. I have gone through the same situation as you have with one of my crabs. Members advised me to wait until 90 days have passed. After 6 months, I dug around and found a shell packed with sand and only containing a few pieces of my crab. I'm really sorry if you end up going through the same thing, but don't lose hope entirely!

Sarah0459 · Post by **Sarah0459** » Thu Dec 10, 2015 11:39 pm

I use 'Sydney Beach Sand', I know that's not very descriptive but it has always been successful in the past. I'm not currently at home right now, so can't tell you specifics but my tank is 90cm by about 45cm and I'm fairly sure that my substrate it around 20cm deep at the deepest point. My humidity is always kept around 80%. I'm just so scared that there all dead and I'm not sure what I've done wrong

if they are its just very disheartening because many of my crabs had successful molts in my old tank that was tiny with that bad purple 'hermit crab sand'. I'm hoping that one day they will all miraculously all pop up on the surface but I know that's very unrealistic

thank you for the help though!

me n my hermikids · Post by **me n my hermikids** » Fri Dec 11, 2015 6:44 am

Dont give up on them yet! Its still very possible they are still okay.

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KellyCrabbieLove · Post by **KellyCrabbieLove** » Fri Dec 11, 2015 8:26 am

From what I understand crabs often dig down and stay there for awhile during the winter months. Mine have done it as well even when their tank is perfect on temp and humidity. I know there were speculations as to why but I am not all the way awake yet so hopefully someone else can jump in for you. 2/3 of mine are down right now because of this yearly disappearance and it sucks.

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CallaLily · Post by **CallaLily** » Fri Dec 11, 2015 9:00 am

I merged your two posts on this topic. Having multiple threads on the same topic can get confusing. Only one in the correct subforum is necessary.

rml6f4 · Post by **rml6f4** » Fri Dec 11, 2015 2:19 pm

Editing this a third time because I can't read.

CallaLily · Post by **CallaLily** » Fri Dec 11, 2015 2:46 pm

rml6f4 wrote:Editing this because I saw the other thread. It seems like most of the time when crabs are buried for a long time it turns out to be a temperature or humidity issue. You said your temps get up to 90 sometimes which seems too hot to me. Get working gauges as soon as you can (I recommend digital) and check to see if your temp and humidity are in the safe range.

Can I ask what thread? The only posts I'm seeing from the OP are the ones I merged together here. I don't see anything about the temperature, just the humidity.

Though that is a good question, what is the actual temperature?

rml6f4 · Post by **rml6f4** » Fri Dec 11, 2015 2:51 pm

CallaLily wrote:
Can I ask what thread? The only posts I'm seeing from the OP are the ones I merged together here. I don't see anything about the temperature, just the humidity.

Though that is a good question, what is the actual temperature?

Yikes. I was looking at another post that was very similar to this one and just saw that it was actually a different poster. Sorry for the confusion! Yeah I stand by my original comment about asking what the temperature is set at.

CallaLily · Post by **CallaLily** » Fri Dec 11, 2015 2:56 pm

No worries, just double checking I hadn't missed anything.

Sarah, I think it would help us figure out what may be going on if you would answer these questions.

1. What kind of substrate is used in your tank and how deep is it?

2. Do you have gauges in the tank to measure temperature and humidity? If so, where are they located and what temperature and humidity do they usually read?

3. Is a heat source used in the tank? If so, what?

4. What types of water are available (fresh or salt) and how is the water treated (what brands of dechlorinator or salt mix and what ratio is used to mix it)?

5. What kinds of food do you feed and how often is it replaced?

6. How long have you had the crab and what species is it, if known?

7. Has your crab molted, and how long ago did it happen?

8. What type of housing are the crabs kept in, what size is it and what kind of lid is on the housing?

9. How many crabs are in the tank and about how large are they?

10. How many extra shells are usually kept in the tank, if any?

11. Have there been any fumes or chemicals near the crabitat recently?

12. How often do you clean the tank and how?

13. Are sponges used in the water dish? If so, how are they cleaned?

14. Has anything new been added to your crabitat recently?

15. Is there any other information you would like to share that might be helpful (anything that is regularly part of your crab care, playtime, bathing, etc.)?

Crab_Coalition · Post by **Crab_Coalition** » Mon Dec 28, 2015 1:37 am

Sarah0459 wrote:I use 'Sydney Beach Sand', I know that's not very descriptive but it has always been successful in the past. I'm not currently at home right now, so can't tell you specifics but my tank is 90cm by about 45cm and I'm fairly sure that my substrate it around 20cm deep at the deepest point. My humidity is always kept around 80%. I'm just so scared that there all dead and I'm not sure what I've done wrong if they are its just very disheartening because many of my crabs had successful molts in my old tank that was tiny with that bad purple 'hermit crab sand'. I'm hoping that one day they will all miraculously all pop up on the surface but I know that's very unrealistic thank you for the help though!

Here is some hope for you. I have a bunch of crabs and most of them went down around the same time and it has been 6 months. After the 5th month, they started popping up one by one. Sometimes I found holes the next day but the ones that popped up where on the surface. Sometimes I think some crabs pop up to grab a bite then disappear...I caught this a few times really late at night. Now most of my crabs are up and just had another pop up this evening. The ones remaining have now been there for 4 months and i think only 1 from the 6 month molt remains buried. All crabs came up healthy and strong with the exception of one who was very weak. All had nice color, lots of hair and black tips but were starving. One of my crabs spent 3-4 days hanging out in in or near the food bowl. It was great to see my kid re-bond with the crabs he missed. Don't give up hope. I had the same urgency to dig and at several times I made up my mind to do it the following weekend but I held off and it is a good thing I did. (-:

HCA: Hermit Crab Association