Is he molting or not?

[emmac350]

Okay, here's my fun situation (I swear my crabs enjoy annoying and befuddling me).

1. Benny's dug down under my driftwood on the left side of the crabitat.
2. Rack's dug down on the right side of the crabitat, by the food bowl (pig!)
3. The 'tat was getting rather chilly as it's currently in the living room by the door and it's been getting rather cold here at night.
4. I got my order (yay!) of Addiction store food, and changed out the food from the eggplant and yellow squash and baby shrimp and dried fruit and such to all the free samples I got except for the popcorn as I didn't feel like popping it.
5. I took my desk lamp and used it as a heat lamp for them this afternoon and then this evening. It was on as a general "sun" to warm the 'tat air this afternoon - took it from 70 degrees F to 75.6 degrees F. This evening I had it on by the sand in the front middle of the 'tat so it wouldn't heat anyone up too much.
6. The tank smells a little bad right now, but I'm unsure of whether it's because of a dead crab (Benny?), wet driftwood, wet Cocohut (those do smell kinda bad when wet), new food including stinky worm castings, or what.
7. A few days ago, I could hear Rack digging around but I knew he hadn't come up at all (no new sand in food or water).
8. Tonight when I came to turn the lamp off from the sand (overall 'tat temperature only went from 70.8 to 72 F from it, so I don't think I baked anyone), I could hear Rack moving around again...a lot. It sounded like he was moving closer to the lamp's warmth, but who knows. Benny MAY have been moving too, or else I could've just been hearing Rack's movements.
9. Oh, here's my other stupid moment. They dug in the day I was going to replace the "aquarium reef sand" that's too coarse for my tastes with nice soft playsand. So the sand they're in is coarser than I'd like them to be in, and it does need more misting than playsand does to stay damp. I've been spraying that cage like crazy trying to keep them damp enough. The sand isn't as deep as it should be, either. It's about 1.5-2 inches deep by Benny, although he does have the driftwood as a cover, and I can see where he dug sand up to hide behind it. It's about 2-3ish inches by Rack, and I think he may have hit bottom and is moving around on there, and that's what I hear? I don't know, and not seeing my babies is killing me.

I do plan on moving the 'tat here soon to get it away from the cold air that comes in whenever we open the door. I just have to clear a shelf out of my bookshelf to make room for them.

Question is - are they molting? Has anyone else had a molting crab that they can hear moving around under the sand in the 'tat? Are they just being mean to me? Are they still destressing even though I've had them about a month now? Are they coming out now because they're warmer and have good quality food? Or should I just stop worrying and let them do what they're going to do? I'm so afraid of more crabs dying; I've had 8 in the last 2 months, and these are the only two are alive. Granted, the first 4 were tiny marine crabs we caught ourselves out about chest deep in water on a sandbar, and Shaq died of PPS and Z died of...being crazy and deciding to abandon his shell. But still, I'm really paranoid about 'tat smells, and I want SO BADLY to check on Benny because all I'd have to do is lift up that driftwood...

[erikleeson]

Well hermit crabs will dig down, usually to hide or just for fun. They also may dig down to escape the heat. Most of my crabs molt without showing any premolting signs. And when a crab wants to molt, usually it will just bury itself. The most common premolt sign is large periods of time pent in water, especially salt water. I have noticed this in Purple Pincer Coenobita Clypeatus) but not the Ecuadorian species (Coenobita Compressus)

This is strange because Ecuadorian crabs are said to need salt water more than Purple Pincers.

Anyways, just keep your sand moist and the dishes full and leave the crabs alone. They know how to do their thing.