one crab all the time

[Jedi_Sena]

I have one crab that almost always hides. I've hardly seen him in 6 months. The others are active. It is hard to know when to deep clean the crab tank because he rarely shows himself during the day. Once in a great while I will see him late night and I'll check him over closely and try to clean the tank in the next day or two if he doesn't look freshly molted or anything. I've had him for about a year and he seems healthy enough, but it is strange. Anyone else in the same boat?

[emmac350]

Yeah, one of my original PPs is rarely out where I can see him. I have mostly tiny sized crabs, though, so they do molt every few weeks sometimes. Some crabs are just by nature more shy or skittish than others, and that's honestly why I have more than 2 crabs. I had to wait until late at night to see my original 2 PPs even after they were done molting. Part of that was due to the fact that it was winter and the ambient temperature in the whole apartment was 70F, but even when I raised the heat they rarely came out. Now one of them doesn't care if I'm around when he comes up, but the other one waits until no one's awake and the house is completely dark before emerging. Occasionally I see him after 10 pm, but only if we were out and come back then, so the house was dark until I got home.

[Jedi_Sena]

Actually, this hiding thing is working really well for Shredder. He has been topside for a couple of weeks now and is HUGE! He just molts and molts and molts while he is keeping a low profile.

[CrabbyJo]

I have several that are sneaky little hiders, but especially Jeffrey. I've only seen him out and about a few rare times in the past year, so it's a treat when I actually see him.
So yep, it's completely normal. I love the ones that seem to be getting less skittish, realizing that those big things moving out there aren't really going to eat them.