Crab emergency (no photo just text)
I’m hoping someone here can help me out and I’m sorry this is long. I have an ant infestation in my tank (20 gal, 6+ inch substrate, plenty of hides and climbs, salt water and fresh with bubbler, fluctuating but average ~79 temp ~80 humidity). I determined I had to completely redo the set up, as the ants were everywhere with no clear path in or out and there were a LOT of them. Here’s my problem:
I had two molting crabs— one came up on his own and is in his temporary tank as of yesterday (10 gal, all same parameters otherwise).
The other has been molting since a few days after I got him back in late September. He was super active in the store, was curious about his new home, but went down pretty quickly and I haven’t seen him come up ever since. Today I finally gently dug for him so I could clean out the infested tank, and don’t know if he’s alive or still mid molt. He changed shells at some point while he was under. He was totally unresponsive, oddly colored, and limp. I gently poked at his little claw hanging out (all I could really see), blew on him, picked him up, and nothing at all. He didn’t smell bad, or like anything really. There were pieces of his molt in the sand around him.
I didn’t get a photo because I just buried him up as quickly as I could in the temporary tank, but I have no clue if he’s actually alive. I included the molt pieces I could find with him. Has this happened to anyone, having to move a crab mid molt? Is there any hope he’s alive? Eventually I’ll have to move him again when the old tank is better, do I keep him in the temporary one and hope he comes up so as to not disturb him twice? Do I assume he didn’t make it? It’s been a 6+ month molt and he was pretty small.
Any help is super appreciated!!