i'm the worst crab owner ever

[ayianna]

Ooookay. Some of you are going to disagree with me on this, but bear with me for a few minutes, okay?

First, when a crab has freshly molted (I know, I had a crab molt IN MY HAND once) it is very soft, almost jelly-like. This is their new exo. It'll grow for a few hours slightly, but not a whole lot. Now, that new exo hardens significantly over the course of the first 24 hours. After 24 hours, while their exo isn't as /thick/ as usual, it's hard enough for them to survive just fine.

With that said, I dig up my crabs every week when I clean out the tank and give them all a bath.

That's right, I dig up my crabs. EVERY molt I've had, even those that I have interrupted briefly, as they get re-buried afterward with whatever parts are remaining, has been successful. I have crabs that molt as often as once every 2 or 3 weeks (Zoom just doesn't know when to stop) and are down for about half a week to some (Big Red, a small jumbo) who stays down and inactive for about two weeks and only molts about once every 6 months. Unless my crab has freshly molted and is still glossy with the fluid that separates them from their exo, it gets put in the bath.

Crabs DO NOT always eat all of their exo. With this in mind, tossing out a few legs won't kill your crab. In fact, some crabs leave lots of their legs left, even after weeks. Save them, put them in your iso tank for emergencies. Regardless of having molting crabs or not, your tank should always have some form of calcium in it. You can give it to them in many ways, though. Here's a list:

Starfish!! Crabs LOVE to eat starfishes!
Barnacles - they chip off and munch little pieces of this
Coral - same thing!
Egg shells - yup
Calcium chews - y'know, the chocolatey things, sometimes used for indigestion. That's what I'm talking about. Sweet, so your crabs can't resist!
Small Bones - yes, your crabs will break off and eat pieces of this
Calcium supplement powder in their food or on a piece of fruit for added irresistability - you can get this in the reptile section, but don't get a big container, you won't use much
Calcisand - it's just unnatural to eat the stuff you walk on, isn't it?
Old stored legs of other molted crabs - yea, cannibalistic, huh?

Regardless of whether your crab eats these things after a molt, it's exo WILL harden. Over time, the exo gets harder, even after they come up from a molt. All this means is that they'll have a craving for the above items.

In conclusion, don't freak over your crabs. They can stand to walk around for a little while while you clean the tank unless they've just molted less than 24 hours ago, and you'll be able to tell. If that's the case, just bury them again and they should be fine. Crabs are heartier than we like to think they are. ^_^

[Wai]

Crabs DO NOT always eat all of their exo. With this in mind, tossing out a few legs won't kill your crab. In fact, some crabs leave lots of their legs left, even after weeks.

I crush up the uneaten bits of exo, and then my molted crab eats them.