HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Not a big emergency since both parties were separated and appeased before any serious injuries occured.

Summary my jumbo PP broke my medium E's left foreleg, the one that folds over the claw when it curls into. Only found out because the chirping woke me in the night. He dropped the broken leg on his own later and burrowed down for safety.

Main question is what are my E's chances of surviving the injury?

I'm coming up on two years with the cast of 5 crabs, and I've never had any problems before. He just resurfaced after burrowing to escape, and seems to be fine, but a bit on edge. Appeasing both parties with some carrots and dead darkling beetles.

I let the other guy keep the leg, since he kinda fought for it. A little savage, but I think it's better that the crabs eat the discarded part than me throwing it away.(Yay cannibalism?)

Before the interrogation begins, it's a 40 gal 7 in. sub, and two pools 6 in. deep. I keep it around 87F in the back right next to the heat pad, and around 80-82F in the front depending on the AC.

Out of the 5 crabs, how many are E's and how many PP's? What size are they?

So sorry to hear of the lil fight. I don’t really think losing one leg is going to cause a death BUT I’m no expert either. Based on many hours of reading, I’ve seen plenty of storied where they throw their own leg and regrow it at a later date.
Of course the more pressing issue is why the one went after the other. Any clues? I would say, again, after hours of reading, to take the aggressor out for some isolation time just to be safe. I’d much rather one in iSo than any other altercations making things much worse....hope this helps some. Please do update!

One Large PP, 1 Medium E, 1 small E, the other two pp are small and micro. The E is doing fine. Thinking the cause is protein deficiencies. Or my Jumbo is discovering cannibalism is a way of living too. Pic attached is the E in question curled slightly with the missing limb side apparent.

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A fair number of people have had difficulties keeping E's and PP's together. Some people have had them together without issue (as it sounds like you have for some time), but they are different species with different priorities and it may well be that communication and/or proximity cues (how much space they need before feeling threatened/crowded) differ between them as well. If you can, separating the species and keeping two crabitats might be something to consider. E's tend to like things a bit warmer than PP's, anyway, so setting them up with their own places might be good all around. In the meantime, make sure to keep offering a variety of sources of protein and chitin, and start scheming for a bigger tank for your PP's--7 inches of substrate is not nearly enough for a jumbo. Best wishes!

Status update. My E survived and regrew the limb in only two months under the ground too.

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SR245 wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 19, 2020 10:28 am

Status update. My E survived and regrew the limb in only two months under the ground too.

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Yay! Such a sweet lil fella! Thanks for updating, it’s always good to hear the happy outcomes- we don’t post enough of those!


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That's awesome! :3