Update:  the crab is dead.  Didn’t make the night in our fishtank.  perhaps i didn’t get the salt just right, perhaps it didn’t want to eat those raw shrimp I lovingly thawed for it, or perhaps it’s just too warm in our house….he was from the frigid south sea after all.  Happy crab looked like he was smiling even in dead.  I threw his carcass in one of my pots so he can live on providing nutrients for my basil.