I still can't tell

[summerluvin]

Hey guys,

I'm still kind of confused about the moulting thing. I've had my crabs for 10 months now. The first few months we didn't know better, so we had bad conditions for our crabs until I started doing research--you know the story.

Now I have my 9 teeny and small pp's in good conditions in a 20 gallon with all the neccesities. They all have been burried for months and I only see Jack at night. Could they go 10 months without moulting? I'm still wondering if they've moulted and I haven't noticed. Uugh, I'm just so confused....

[krackersmom2]

It's highly probable that you haven't noticed a molt. If it happens underground, you can only tell from a few signs after they emerge. Signs are a color change, black pointy very sharp toenails....it will feel like a cactus walking up your forearm...and they are quite hairy.
Here's one possible scenario....they went down to destress which could take a few months and they their molting hormones kicked in and they just stayed down to molt....although some of them could be coming up at night. !0 months does sound like an awfully long time.....Let's see what some of our veteran crabbers have to say. Even though my post count is high, I've only been crabbing since September 2007.....I'm just a chatter box!

[WizKidsMom]

Go 10 months without molting - possible. Since they have been down for a while, they could indeed be molting. Once they dig down, they look for a place that is 'safe' for them - out of the way of traffic.
My small guy was down for about 4 weeks (if I remember correctly). He was in a corner giving me a window to his progress. I put a piece of black construction paper over the 'window' so he could have the darkness. Then one day I checked on his progress and he wasn't there. Just some pieces of his exo. He was walking around the tank checking to see if anything changed since his dig.

[*Kathy*]

I would guess that since your crabs are teenies & smalls, it would be highly unlikely for them to not molt within that length of time. My smaller crabs all molt several times a year. Since they like to bury themselves so much, you might have missed a few molts because they hid them from you.