On Sept. 9th, Maui had buried herself completely. This is quite unusual for any of the hermits crabs. Generally, they will dig themselves "saucers" out of the sand and sleep in those or on top of their log. So I pulled her out of the sand and put her into the Molting Tank. I read that "a crab truly interested only in molting will immediately begin digging and have buried themselves within a half an hour." Needless to say that I was quite frustrated when Maui spent 4 hours in the MT and didn't bury herself. So I put her back into the main tank with Tiger and Edlie. When I woke up on the 10th, Maui had buried herself again! Arg!
I smoothed out the sand that was over her and resolved that if she didn't come out within two days, I would move her into the MT and leave her there. And that is exactly what happened. On the 12th, I moved Maui over, feeling slightly bad for digging her up again. Later that night while I was still awake, Maui buried herself one last time into the sand. SCORE! I was so happy! It's now day 4 since she's been buried in the MT. So far for my first molt, I'm feeling pretty good. I don't bother the MT tank at all except once a day to mist it and to check the smoothed sand for signs that she's come out. I hope Maui is appreciating the "alone time" she's getting!
While Maui's taking a break, I made the hermies a playground. Yay! Just a Apple&Eve juice cardboard box that used to hold apple juice bottles. Some toilet paper rolls, a small water bottle that's been cut in half, and some bottle caps sit in this for the hermies to play and climb on. Yesterday, I took Tiger and Edlie outside and sat on my front porch while holding their playground in my lap. Some of the neighborhood kids came by and inquired about my shelled friends. After sitting there for an hour, I decided it was time to go back inside. I sure tuckered out the hermies, they went straight to bed when I replaced them in their tank!
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