I have three hermit crabs and one of them has dug itself into the sand which he never does. is he molting?

Question

i have 3 hermies, big mac, bonga, and zippy jr. jr. jr. i have owned big mac for a year and a half and zippy is my newest one, i have owned him for about 3 or 4 months. when i woke up i went to check on them and found that zippy had buried himself in some what looks like wet moist sand. i read on a couple other websites that when hermit crabs bury themselves in the sand, they are getting ready to molt. i was wondering if zippy is getting ready to molt, none of my hermies have ever molted, big mac changed his shell once but i already know thats not molting. and zippy has never buried himself in the sand, so is he going to molt? i have 4 to 5 shells in there, is that enough? please help me!!!!

Answer 1

it sounds like molting to me.... as long as one or more of the shells are alittle bigger than his last one you should be all set

Answer 2

yep he could be molting although he could just be having a break and burying himself for a bit.

if he is molting and you do not want to pop him in an isolation tank (so the other crabs do not try and eat his molt as this is what gives them nutrients while underground) just pop a plastic bottle (cut open at the bottom) over him. this will stop the others getting to him and he can molt safely. oh and molting can take ages. one of mine was under for almost 2 months.

molting is also when alot of ppl loose their crabs so be careful and keep your temp and humidity up.

also when a crab molts they usaully change their shells before a molt but if after you will see that the crab is actually smaller than when he went into molt. so make sure you have a couple of shells that are touch smaller as well as bigger. as some will change into a smaller one and then after their exoskeleton gets hard and big they change again.

anyways good luck :) and read about molting online. theres heaps of great websites about it. just type in hermit crab molting and you'll get heaps of info.

Answer 3

It could be molting, it is burrowing because he needs protection while he is vulnerable. It is possible he just needs moisture. My old hermies used to do that all the time.

Answer 4

It's more than likely that he is getting ready to molt.  I remember when one of mine buried himself in the sand for what seemed like forever... I assumed he was dead and so I went to remove the body and a shell just crumbled in my hands... It was pretty freaky.  Suddenly he reappeared a few days later.  It wasn't until after all this happened that I realized what was going on.  I do recall after reading more about it that they suggest you isolate him from the other crabs... I would be careful moving him,  maybe move the others?  Or isolate the area of the tank that he has buried himself in.  Good luck =)