New crab has been buried for a suspicious amount of time, now I suspect he is deceased. Any advice?
Pictures are of my new crab Hugo from when he was first introduced, and of my 40 gallon tank setup (wherein you can see my turbo crab Houdini). Since this photo was taken I have added more leaf litter and larger water pools (you cannot see the old ones clearly in the picture, they were hidden under/behind the hanging coconut).
I bought a new crab from the local pet store, and I will add that this crab came from less-than-stellar conditions. I specifically picked him because he seemed the most likely to survive out of the 2 available crabs. Hugo was rather small, I would guess less than a 1 inch opening on his shell. He buried himself almost immediately upon being placed in my home tank. It has been over 40 days now, and he still has not emerged. I initially suspected that he decided to molt, however, 40 days is a long molt time compared to the molting time of my current crab when he was the same size. The tank does not smell fishy, but does smell rather strong. I don't know, I may be overthinking the smell. It could just be the food.
Overall, I am looking for advice. How will I know if he is deceased? When would you go digging to remove a potentially deceased crab? Any other thoughts on the matter? Thanks, y'all.
EDIT:: Y'all, this isn't my first rodeo. This crab is small. I agree that 40 days MIGHT be a normal amount of time for a molt, but this crab is so small that 3-6 months sounds absolutely ridiculous. If you are going to reply that your crab has molted for 2-3 months or more, please also include the SIZE of your crabs, that would be more helpful. My turbo crab in a 2 inch opening shell takes less than 60 days to molt. Have y'all genuinely had crabs in ~1inch opening shells take 3 months to molt?