Confused

[Krusty2015]

My crab krusty just came up from his second molt since I have had him ( September will be a year! ) He's barely a medium size. He came up at the 3 1/2 week mark which is sooner than last time when he stayed down 4 1/2 weeks. He has a hard exo, bright purple claw and is very active so no worries there. Gave him and my other crab Ruby a dip in some freshwater for a few minutes and they were good. Krusty spent the whole day crawling and sleeping on the lid. At one point I think I frightened him when we came face to face at the front and he let go but crawled right back up there. So my crab Ruby spent the day digging which I thought nothing of. At 3 am I woke up and decided to see if krusty ever came down sure enough he did and was chilling by the thermometer and Ruby was chilling in a new shell under a plant on the other side of the tat. Her old shell was in the water dish. I have no idea how it got there but I dumped the water out of it and placed it in the shell shop. I rewoke at 5 am and krusty was still in the same area but she had DUG DOWN. She just finished a molt not even 2 and half weeks ago! Anything to worry about? Is she stressed since he came up? Other than an initial pushing match when I noticed he was up and another one at the food dish hours later after their bath I'm assuming they were both after the dish at the same time which happens from time to time. Everything has been fine today and they pretty much ignored each other. Sorry this post is so long! Just worried!

[isadoraisacat]

I'm not 100 percent sure if im right on this but you did say you gave them a bath right?
as far as i know your not supposed to pick them up and place them in pools, your supposed
to allow them to choose on their own. Because they like to adjust the salt levels with in their shell
and adjust it by going back and forth from salt to fresh water on their own. From what i hear putting
them in the water and not allowing them to do so on their own accord can make them stressed out
which may be the reason for odd behavior and or digging to de-stress after. I may be wrong but
this may be a possibility. Unless i misread what you right, i apologize if thats the case.

[Crabinski]

@isadoraisacat is right: crabs don't need to be bathed as they regulate their body chemistry by soaking themselves in both the FW and SW pools as needed. I doubt that giving them both a bath would cause Ruby to dig down -- crabs spend more time underground than we think but are generally "sneaky" about it, digging under at night and then reappearing on the surface as though they'd been there all the time. She's probably just enjoying creating a tunnel or two for napping.

[Krusty2015]

I miss spoke I should have said dip. I always read on here it's a good idea to dip in fresh water to get rid of molt smell and to make them both smell the same? She isnt all the way down her shell is almost visible from the surface. She has a window next to the glass which is covered normally anyway. I think she is playing down there. My mother reminded me Ruby does this every once in awhile.

[isadoraisacat]

you did say dip to me 'taking a dip in the pool' means going swimming so i assumed a full dunk.
but anyway what i think is better is to place them in the food dish to pick up the smell of the tank
to get rid of that smell, with out messing up their water situation in their shells.