Mating or fighting ?

[Jujubee]

I have one male crab who just came out from possibly molting / 3 weeks worth of hiding under. After coming up , my female hermit keeps going after him and him only. I have no idea why. She will find him, push him over ( so the hole faces upwards ) and she will just open up all of her claws at him ( idk if she’s preparing to fight/or trying to mate with him ) she does nothing more after opening up at him , at first I separate them apart because I thought she was attacking him , and every time I do so the female will just quickly crawl towards that male and do the same thing again. She’s only doing it to that particular crab. And yesterday night , I heard some quacking sound ( first time ever) it got kinda loud.

Can anyone please explain what are they doing and what should I be doing ? Isolate them ? Let them be ?

The male did nothing btw, he just hides in the shell

[CrabbyLover77]

I have one male crab who just came out from possibly molting / 3 weeks worth of hiding under. After coming up , my female hermit keeps going after him and him only. I have no idea why. She will find him, push him over ( so the hole faces upwards ) and she will just open up all of her claws at him ( idk if she’s preparing to fight/or trying to mate with him ) she does nothing more after opening up at him , at first I separate them apart because I thought she was attacking him , and every time I do so the female will just quickly crawl towards that male and do the same thing again. She’s only doing it to that particular crab. And yesterday night , I heard some quacking sound ( first time ever) it got kinda loud.

Can anyone please explain what are they doing and what should I be doing ? Isolate them ? Let them be ?

The male did nothing btw, he just hides in the shell

It sounds like your female might want your male's shell.

How many shells do you have available for each crab? Are the shells offered the correct sizes and opening shapes for your type of crab?

Here's the care sheet for shells:
https://hermitcrabassociation.com/phpBB ... 24&t=92552

I had something similar happen a little while ago. Usually all of my crabs get along. All of a sudden, my female crab Mera would t leave my other female Ruby alone. Mera wasn't hurting her, but would sort of guard her or sit on her. I tried dipping them both in their freshwater pool so they smelled the same (you can try this too), and it worked for a bit. Eventually, I realized Mera was in Ruby's shell and Ruby had taken Mera's old one. Mera hasn't bothered Ruby since.

If your female doesn't relent, you may have to separate them for a bit (I had to do that too) to see if that calms things down. If you need more appropriate shells, check out Naples. I've ordered from there a few times and my crabs like their shells.

Happy Crabbing!

Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk

[Jujubee]

Yeah I suspected that she wanted the shell too, but I had another two shell that is identical to the one the male is wearing. I moved her to the shell area but she still insisted to find the male again.

I will try out the freshwater dipping idea too just in case.
Today they are mostly apart from each other so I’ll continue to observe thanks for the response !

[CrabbyLover77]

Yw!
I probably have 40-50 shells in my tank but Mera just had to have Ruby's. Crabbies are so crazy lol.

Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk