Noises while molting?

[snowpup949]

I've only had crabs for about a month now. My smaller crab, Penny, just went down for a molt about a week ago. The strage thing is that I can hear her chirp from under the sand sometimes and her shell scrapes against the side of the glass. I thought that crabs were very still during a moult?

She is buried above the undertank heater which does concern me a little. She isn't in an iso tank because I don't have one and there is only one other crab in the tank with her. He hasn't bothered her during her time of moulting from what I can tell.

So is she for sure moulting because I didn't know they chirped during a moult?

[Wai]

She may not necessarily be moulting, but she may be preparing for it. Some hermit crabs dig for fun or warmth, especially if you are using an under tank heater. Do you have a thermostat to control the under tank heater? If she does moult above it, there is a chance that she'll get dehydrated by the under tank heater.

[snowpup949]

No I don't have a thermostat but I have a thermometer and the temperature in the tank is pretty consistant. She's been buried for at least a week now. If she was burying just for warmth or fun would she stay down for that long? What can I do to make sure she's safe?

[ladybug15057]

The thermometer that maybe mounted on your tanks wall is reading the air temp. It does not and cannot tell what the substrate temp is, which is usually different than the air temp. With any warming source whether it is an UTH or a light one should always monitor the substrate as well as the air temp at all time. I know of a few times where the air temp in a few crabbers tank was reading 75-80*F and when they took the substrate temp was very shocked that the substrate temp was 100 or 100+F.
If you're able, purchase an Electronic temp controller to plug your UTH into to keep the warm side from becoming dangerously hot. (make sure it is a thermostat, not a rheostat. One that reads actual temp, not hi, med, lo)
temp controller

[snowpup949]

Thank you very much I will do that.

[CrabbyJo]

To answer your question about the noises underground - yes, they will dig and move around, and the "chirping" you may be hearing could actually be the sound of their legs against the glass as they try to dig further. It's a normal instinct for them to dig as deeply as they can, so they may try to keep on digging even though they've hit bottom.