Kinda Weird

[DaisyCrab]

I posted awhile ago about my crabs seemingly having some kind of "chain reaction" with molting. Or at least burrowing for long periods of time.

So now, out of my 8 crabs, I have 3 that aren't under the sand. The weird part is I have 2 tanks, a 20g & a 10 g. My 20g is for my big crabs, where only one isn't burrowed under. And in my 10g, only 2 are on the surface. I have 4 crabs in each tank.

Is that not weird? Two different tanks yet they're all acting the same? Also, my bigger ones have what looks like tunnels and just holes dug out everywhere. They've never done that.

I'm a little baffled, just wanted to share, thanks.

[Chuck_Norris]

Maybe they're all connected psychically...

[alli'smommy]

a while back, 6 of my 7 crabs were buried. Then they all came up and now all are up except the one that didn't bury with everyone else!!!

[Briard]

For those who didn't read my quite lengthy introduction, I'm an ecologist by training, although I specialize in plant-insect interactions. So my scientific side has been getting very curious to learn more about hermit crab research. I'm just starting to delve into the scientific literature on hermies, but I've already learned that their behavior is tightly connected to lunar cycles (spawning, for instance). Although I haven't done enough reading yet to make a very educated guess, I'm still wondering if all of your guys are synchronizing because they receive the same light/dark cycles and other conditions. Over the long term it doesn't seem surprising to me that they'd all go through the same burrowing or molting cycle. I am curious what range of sizes you have of crabs as that seems like it ought to be a factor.

All but one of my 6 is down right now. I miss them! Not sure if they are really molting or just de-stressing still but I wish they'd hurry up and come above ground again!

[DaisyCrab]

Well, in my 10g tank, I have 4 hermies. Each are quarter size. In my 20 gallon tank, I have 4 hermies also. 3 are just bigger than a golf ball and one is slightly smaller. 2 of the golf ball sized hermies are burried and the slightly smaller hermie is burried.