QuestionHello, I had two large crabs. One of them buried itself, then the other. I figured they were just molting so I bought two (small size) more to keep me company.. and then they promptly buried themselves as well. I figured well, maybe all of them are molting. It has been a month since the first crab (about 3 inch crab) buried himself. I checked the bottom of the aquarium and could see him moving around down there. I am positive they do not come up to eat or drink. I can hear all four of them digging from time to time.. I don't understand, how can a crab stay down for so long without eating if he's not molting?
I offer salt water, freshwater, multiple coco huts, 4 inches (up to 6 inches in some places) of play sand in a 10g aquarium that I keep fairly humid. I live in Austin and it is 60% humidity here naturally. I mist every day or so anyways. Temperature is usually from 72 at night to 78+ during the day.
One problem I have considered is that the sand is not quite wet. In fact, it probably isn't nearly wet enough. I can _just_ make a well formed hole in the sand with my finger. I found out after my first two crabs buried themselves that I was supposed to wet the sand every week or so and mix it to even it out. Not wanting to disturb a potentially molting crab, I left them be. So, is there a possibility that they simply dug themselves down and now can't climb out because the sand is too dry? If that's the case, should I just dig them out and then keep the sand moist from now on?
AnswerActually they are fine. It's really common behavior for crabs to go under for long periods of time. You can try to entice them with smelly food like peanut butter and popcorn. The dried sand won't bother them, they are quite good diggers, just keep misting it down every few days and try not to wear out the carpet in front of the tank with the pacing!
