HCA: Hermit Crab Association

So I’ve had my hermit crabs for years and I have no freaking clue what I just witnessed. Well I have some ideas, but I don’t know. My son just called me into his room after I put him to bed because he said he was hearing a noise. When I went in and heard the noise, I realized it was coming from his hermit crab tank. My largest crab was on top the second largest one (I have 3)...it sounded like a scraping noise like if you were scraping metal against glass maybe? They weren’t anywhere near the glass they were in the middle and I didn’t see my larger crab doing anything just was on top of the other one. They were both still in their shells and then they parted ways once I started observing and had turned on the light and stuff. What the freak was that? I know one of my crabs was checking out a shell earlier that my largest crab has used before. Could it have been her dominating my smaller crab with a weird crab call noise? With that being said, I very rarely see these crabs together. My largest crab seems to be underground when my two smaller crabs are out and Vice versa, like they avoid each other. I was thinking maybe my largest crab is just a jerk but I’m not crab behavior expert. anyways thanks in advance


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It sounds like they just were having a small fight, dominance display like you said. The fact they both disengaged, it was a harmless argument.



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Do I need to be worried about them? They have plenty of shells I thought. Should I get more? Could it be a shell thing?


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Nessiandnoah wrote:Do I need to be worried about them? They have plenty of shells I thought. Should I get more? Could it be a shell thing?


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I dont think its a shell thing, to me it sounds more like a hierarchy thing. Nothing to worry about, as one crab wasn't continuously attacking the other - they split up once you came into the room.

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Ok thanks


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