Dumb Question - Keeping crabs alive

For the first time ever, I went to HMB today and caught 2 crabs.  I tossed them in the back of my truck and took them home about 20 minutes away.  By the time I got home 1 was dead and the other one near death.

Was I supposed to keep them in salt water for the drive home.  I wanted to keep them alive until tomorrow for dinner.  Am I supposed to keep them in salt water over night?

I'm not an expert, but have had good luck with them in a cooler with some ice.  For the ride home i've gotten away with just a gunny sack and soaking it in the water before heading home.  Kept them alive in the sink just running water over the sack every hour or so until dinner time.

How were they when you put them in back of the truck?  When I snare, I keep them in the bucket without water for up to 4-5 hours followed by letting them sit in the fridge partially covered.  The majority of them survive - 80-90%.

Another option is to bring some salt water home and use an aerator.  The strong ones usually survive for quite awhile if some of the water is swapped out every 2 days.

I'm not an expert, but have had good luck with them in a cooler with some ice.  For the ride home i've gotten away with just a gunny sack and soaking it in the water before heading home.  Kept them alive in the sink just running water over the sack every hour or so until dinner time.

ditto. I use a gunny sack out on the water and when i get back to the truck just put the sack into the cooler, works great

ditto.  After putting it over ice in a cooler, I took it to Tahoe, took it out 24 hours later, and some of them still were moving (clawing).

You do NOT want to fill a bucket with water for the crab unless you have an aerator running. They will die in short order. Keep them cold and their metabolism will slow way down. A burlap bag is great. Wet newspapers work good too. To live ship crab we used to wrap them in wet newspaper pack them in a stro cooler and put a layer of gel ice on top. They would survive the flight to Hawaii for customers.

Just keep the cold and damp.

Thanks