Halloween crabs, from what I have observed, love to hide. They also love to soak in water. By soak, I mean completely submerge their underbelly in a wide dish of water. This is necessary to keep their gills wet so that they can breathe properly.
When I owned my second Halloween crab, I only provided him a small dish of freshwater; this was a mistake. I would notice that he would constantly try to cram himself into his hottub (as I liked to call it), and that he could never manage to submerge his underbelly. Only a couple of weeks after observing him and owning him, he passed on. I now realize that this is because he could not soak his gills. Sadly, I did not realize this fact until two or three Halloween crabs later. When I finally did get a grasp on what the problem was, I set out to fix it.
The first thing that I did was buy a "walk-in" water dish that is commonly marketed as being for reptiles and tortoises. A walk-in water dish is a large, wide dish that stretches out beyond the actual water area and slopes downward so that an animal can easily climb up into it. My current Halloween crab loves this dish because he can easily get into it, it's wide enough and deep enough for him to soak his gills in it, and he can easily hide underneath it. That's right, my walk-in water dish serves two purposes: drinking/soaking water and a hiding spot! When I noticed that Feisty was digging and getting underneath the dish after soaking, I made things easier for him. I placed a seashell under the end of the dish and made it so that the dish became somewhat of a roof for a dark, cozy home. Feisty loves it, and hides under the dish for most of the day until he comes out at night to soak and dig. I know that his hiding spot has helped keep him from stressing out, and therefore it has helped keep him alive and crawling.
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