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Please help!

21 14:52:30

Question
Hello,

I bought my son 4 hermit crabs and they've settled in well, they are in a 15 gallon tank. One of the has dug down after 2 days we got him but my sone was playing with the substrate in the tank and he has nearly dug the hermie out, so I put the sand back on top of the hermit crab. Will he be okay? I dont think he is dead beacuase I can smell any fishy smell. The temps are 74-75F and the humidity is 75%. They have 6 inches of sand. 2 waterbowls one salt water and freshwater. Also I dont feed them commercial food, I feed the krill, fresh apples bits, carrots, spinach dandelion leaves, freeze dried shrimp and sometimes peanut butter without salt, sugar etc...

Many thnaks,

Maria

Answer
Generally you should never rebury a crab. However, if you had only had him for two days, it was much less likely that he was molting than just destressing and a healthy crab should be able to dig himself back out. They leave air pockets as they dig that we cant recreate when we bury them.