saki hasn't moved for 2 weeks!! help!!

[crabeginner]

hi
we have a crab (saki) that hasn't moved for a couple of weeks. she was half buried and i had to move her because another crab had died near her (i'm pretty sure it was pps , because we had just bought saki, the large crab that died and two others that were smaller like saki about 10 days earlier. i moved her without thinking so i could clean out that part of the substrate and she climbed into a little pot where i had a plant growing and stayed there for several days and didn't seem to move,( the other two guys her size are fine and very active.) except for twice. once when brokey came and sat beside her for several hours , she climbed up about 4 inches away and stayed there for the night and the second time when another crab came and sat by her, in the night and the next morning sake had dug the plant out and was in the bottom of the pot (its only 2 inches tall and seemed to be sleeping there. i then isolated her in a 5 gal tank - i just put her and the little pot in there which i turned sideways and she hasn't moved since then, it seems like - maybe very small shifts in her position.

i've left her with honey and powdered cuttlebone and surf and turf mix and worm castings, all laid out just outside the pot with of course water and salt water, and there's no evidence that she's moved, or eaten. there's no smell fishy or iodine like and i'm keeping it warm at a steady 80 and humid at 80 also.

i wondered if she molted and i moved her without her exo, or she got really stressed and is dying from it! or if she's still about to molt, or for some reason she is too weak to move. should i try to pick her up and put her on some food - maybe she's too weak to go to it? or should i just leave her alone?

i'm pretty sure the big fellow who died, was already under alot of stress when we bought him - he wouldn't come out of his shell in the store, though i could see his big claw moving so we took him. he only walked around the first day and then never came out from the hut again , so finally i decided to lift up the hut and see where he was and found him dead , completely out of his shell with several of his legs broken - i don't know what really happened..

so if anyone has any advice for little saki - let us know - my 7 yr old son is very upset that we might lose him. all our other crabs are great and active and messing around the tank except for this little fellow

thanks in advance
zia

[HermieLove19]

If she is digging and burying herself like that I would guess that she's molting since the temperature and humidity are perfect. Did you find her exo in the tank before you isolated her? Maybe she didn't do it yet. If she's still buried I wouldn't take her out just yet to give her food.

[crabeginner]

Thanks for the reply - i didn't see it until tonight.

we moved her to very carefully to iso tank and just picked up the pot she was in and set it in there. and after about a week, she hadn't even moved a millimeter so i put some honey on my palm and picked her up and set her on it. she didn't come out of her shell, but she chirped once and i could feel her moving. i set her back in the substrate in a little hole without covering her, but an hour later when i went to check, she'd crawled back into the little pot, which is obviously where she wants to be.

now that i know she's alive, i feel a bit more reassured!! she moved a tiny bit today - changed her position - so i know she's still there and i'll stop worrying and wait to see what happens.

thanks for replying - i appreciate it
zia

[HermieLove19]

I'm happy to hear she's alive and well. I just hope she becomes more active!

[Wai]

She sounds pre-moult to me, in the way that she kept moving away from the others. Be prepared.

[crabeginner]

she's been in iso since i first posted here - but its been over 2 weeks - what i'm now worried about is that i don't think she's been near the salt or distilled water for a long time now. should i do something about that? and i'm pretty sure she hasn't eaten anything.

this morning there was some evidence that she had moved a tiny bit - she'd dug some of the substrate outwards, and maybe was trying to bury herself, but because she's in the little pot she can't quite do it?

should i put her on the salt water to hydrate, or just leave her alone - the water dishes are about 4 - 5 inches away from her and the ground cuttlebone is right behind her and honey a couple of inches away

thanks for all your responses - this will be our first molt and i really want to do everything we can to make it successful
cheers
zia

[pattycake101]

I would NOT touch her! That can stress her out and mess up her molt. Hermies have a horamone that lets them stop molting if the condisions arn't right and start up again so if she gets hungry or needs water she can stop and come up and eat or drink. My hermie did this with his first molt and is still alive now. So I wouldn't worry.

[crabeginner]

Thanks for the advice - we are really new at this and there's so much we haven't learned or experienced yet. we haven't touched her and she seems fine