They bury themselves all day long!

[scroogedacrab]

All of my crabs but one bury themselves all day long. Is this normal? I watched last night and all of them came out at night but one didnt. However they didnt come out for very long. Maybe an hour or two. My temp gauge says its 70 in there, but its kinda a cheap gauge. Could they be burying themselves because its to cold? My one crab who doesnt bury herself is very active.

[spidtat]

It could be b/c it is to cold they really like it more between 75 to 80 really. Although I do have a couple of crabs that bury just to bury no real other reason. I had one crab that for the longest only came up to get a drink and a quick bite to eat and then back down she would go. It was always a treat to get to see her out and about but it was always short lived, then one day she came out and stayed and is now one of my more active crabs. There is a chance that yours just like to dig and tunnel but from your temperature I would say it is more for warmth more than anything else.

[scroogedacrab]

Well I went and bought another heater today. So hopefully that will help.

[CrabbyJo]

70 is too low for them, really. If it gets that low for very long they can go into dormancy, which is not good from what I understand. You want your minimum temp to be about 73, but keeping it up around 74 to 81 is a good range I believe. You also want to temp your substrate. You can use a kitchen temp probe to do that. It shouldn't be too cold, or too warm. If you use an under tank heater, it is best to have it on a thermostat so it will turn off if it gets too hot.
If you do use one, you want to put the probe for the thermostat in the center on the glass just over the UTH, below the substrate. Some clear packaging tape over the cord just behind the probe (not over the probe or it won't read right) taping it to the glass, will keep your hermies from pulling it up out of the sand. You don't want it to get over 81*F.

[ladybug15057]

And with the temps mentioned above, due to hermies being cold blooded creatures they do need a warmer and cooler side to the substrate so they can adjust their body temps. This is very important to do. (cool end about 72-73* F and warm side 78-80* F)
Do you have any form of huts for them to hide in as opposed to digging? What is your humidity percentage, and did you calibrate/test it to see how accurately it is reading? Where in the tank is the humidity gauge located? (top, middle, substrate level.... left side, middle or right of the tank?)
How long have you had these hermies?