New crabs been MIA for days PLS help

[mamakrabz]

My boyfriend and I bought a few hermit crabs and we bought everything they could possibly need from one of the biggest tank we could get in the shops to the correct substrate and food. Anyways, as soon as we put them in their new set up they all went under the sand almost at the same time in under 10 minutes of them being there. Now, it’s been almost a week since they’ve burrowed themselves and we haven’t seen at least one of them since then. We doubt they even dug up to have food or water. I should mentioned that, we live in Australia and it’s so cold here at the moment. Unfortunately the night we got them, we accidentally bought the wrong size of heat mat as it was too small for the tank so we had to wait the next day till the shops open again to get the perfect size (we tried putting a big heat pack on the tank that night tho so they could still have heat flowing for the night). So i’m guessing they were very cold and tried to stayed warm by being under the sand? They were all active at the shops and as soon as we got them in the tank they all went MIA. I’m just worried they all passed and we can’t find out unless we dig them up (which we’re not planning to do). Are they all destressing? Or could they all be molting at the same time? Pls help as we’re so lost with what to do. We’re new to having crabs as pets but we did a lot of research and spent a lot of money to give them proper care. Thank you in advance!

[curlysister]

Often crabs don't have good conditions or enough substrate to bury. So when we get them home to good tank conditions, they often bury right away. Sometimes they are de-stressing, sometimes molting, and sometimes just digging for fun!