Hermits Out of Molt

Our hermit crabs have come out of molt!

Well, to be specific, they were in the process of coming out of molt. We could hear their shells clinking against the glass walls of the tank through the night, and we had spotted several of them at various times sneaking slowly out for refreshing water and scavenging for food. They had been down in molt for so long that our substrate was becoming shorter and shorter as it gathered and held moisture. You can see here that it was no longer a rich six inches thick:

It was especially fun to watch the crabs return to their burrowing after a night of food and fun. :)

Here you can see one crab already burrowed into a little cave, and another crab beginning to dig his hole for the night. 

The tank was suitable enough for a temporary situation, but we needed to add substrate. We had also gathered more goodies for the crabs to climb on while they were under. Please keep in mind that our crabitat is still in process. The evolution of the tank environment is ongoing. 

Since we saw plenty of crabs come up, we made the decision to go ahead and pull them all out so we could thoroughly redo the tank. This was a frightening decision because it turns out we still had one crab in deep molt. In fact, he was in such deep molt that we named him Dead Guy! 

 Don't worry! We did the 'whiff test'... Dead Guy is still very much alive. ;) ;)

We ended up adding 50 pounds of play sand, several plastic plants from our old aquarium (they will do until we purchase more terrarium plants), climbing background, logs to hide in and under, their goldfish in his bowl, some choice pieces of dried cacti, and I even let my daughter add the sunken ship and a repti climbing rock. (Don't worry, it is a gradual enough incline that the crabs will not be harmed.) We placed a log on the sheer side so they can climb off that way too instead of falling off. The finished results (for now) look something like this. 

As it turns out, even the 50 pounds of sand are not enough to simply call it a day. We currently have 5 1/2 inches of substrate. We are going to have to get more coconut fiber substrate to reach the full six inches. C'est la vie, am I right? This blog is getting long, so I am going to have to split it up. The point has been made, however; our crabs are (mostly) out of molt, and have new digs! :)