Kicking, Chirping and Bullying

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 12:26 am

Ok so I got a few questions I was hoping somebody could help me with,

1) Do E's Chirp ALL the time or just when they're scared/ in danger?
I have a couple who chirp through the night, they actually woke me up chirping...sounded like minature monkeys makin monkey sounds.

2) Is it normal for them to "kick" eachother around, I have an E who likes to wack the other little guys with his small pincher(his name is now Kickmz), he actually sent one flying about 10" across the tank and through the food dish lol and another one he kicked out of my shower caddy in the back to the front of the tank.

3)I guess this last one is more of a let me tell you what happened and hopefully you can tell me whats going on, I introduced a couple E's to the tank with Chewy in it, and when he woke up for his nightly feast he came rushing out from under the log and found out there were newbies in his tank..he went charging after them and was grabbing them with all his legs and somewhat "squeezing" them, which caused them to chirp like crazy, is this normal ie..him establishing the pecking order or is he being a big bully and I need to watch and maybe iso him?

MudCrabDude · Post by **MudCrabDude** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 1:42 am

Thoughts wrote:Ok so I got a few questions I was hoping somebody could help me with,

1) Do E's Chirp ALL the time or just when they're scared/ in danger?
I have a couple who chirp through the night, they actually woke me up chirping...sounded like minature monkeys makin monkey sounds.

Yes, they can. They do it for fun, when scared, when alone, or when in groups. My first encounter of land hermit crab stridulation were of e's. Purple pinchers in large groups also stridulate, as does my lone brevimanus/Indo.

Thoughts wrote: 2) Is it normal for them to "kick" eachother around, I have an E who likes to wack the other little guys with his small pincher(his name is now Kickmz), he actually sent one flying about 10" across the tank and through the food dish lol and another one he kicked out of my shower caddy in the back to the front of the tank.

Yep, that happens, too. As long as it's not fatal, I guess it's ok to have them play soccer with each other as the ball. Usually in time this behavior diminishes.

Thoughts wrote: 3)I guess this last one is more of a let me tell you what happened and hopefully you can tell me whats going on, I introduced a couple E's to the tank with Chewy in it, and when he woke up for his nightly feast he came rushing out from under the log and found out there were newbies in his tank..he went charging after them and was grabbing them with all his legs and somewhat "squeezing" them, which caused them to chirp like crazy, is this normal ie..him establishing the pecking order or is he being a big bully and I need to watch and maybe iso him?

Quite normal. Though I find that in time, they usually will calm down as the newbies become no longer as such.

Good luck.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 1:48 am

Thanks alot Mud, I was worried in a day or two my tank would turn into a mini L.A and they would be riotting and wrecking up the place.

MudCrabDude · Post by **MudCrabDude** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 1:59 am

Thoughts wrote:Thanks alot Mud, I was worried in a day or two my tank would turn into a mini L.A and they would be riotting and wrecking up the place.

Yep. That level of activity is actually quite good (in terms of gauging the individual health of the crabs). For pretty much all the species, I think. It's when they begin to be really inactive is when I would start to worry myself, except when caused by the cold weather or pending molt or just destressing/sleeping and such.

Oh, yeah, and the messed up tank comes with the territory [of keeping any live crab...from the fiddlers to the wacky calico crabs...] These critters are not meant for closed, neat spaces....lolz.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 2:04 am

I laughed when my little punter got all kicky with the others and at the same time I felt bad for laughing incase he was hurting them but it was hillarious watching the other E go flying across the tat and rolling through the food dish(he did get right back up and walk off to play/explore), on the other hand I did NOT find chewy squeezing the much smaller guys funny, I was worried he was gonna kill em I've never seen him move so fast.

MudCrabDude · Post by **MudCrabDude** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 2:12 am

Thoughts wrote:I laughed when my little punter got all kicky with the others and at the same time I felt bad for laughing incase he was hurting the others but it was hillarious watching the other E go flying across the tat and rolling through the food dish(he did get right back up and walk off to play/explore), on the other hand I did NOT find chewy squeezing the much smaller guys funny, I was worried he was gonna kill em I've never seen him move so fast.

Hopefully, the Chewy 'tude will end like in a week, as in my experience.

Of course, now that there is a pecking order being established with the newbies, be aware that they might have some acrimony lingering once the very risky molting season comes to pass....not something to scare you with, but you know, something to just think about just in case the tragedies occur when you do the next deep clean months down the line.
Do crabs carry vendettas? Do sour feelings linger? Do they even care a few seconds after fighting for the first time? Do they even "care"? Oh well....

The football thing, though, was one of the very first behaviors I encountered when I had my first e's back in the early 1990s (and made me realize these aren't exactly the same creatures as the pp's - definitely not a color morph...lol). I remember they would kick each other over slices of apples................gggggggoooooooooooooooAAAL!

Tetracolor · Post by **Tetracolor** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 7:25 am

My E's have never done that... even when I introduce new crabs. Mine just have feeler fights and maybe raise a claw or two at each other and go on with life, but it sounds like your crabs have a different way of establishing things!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 4:06 pm

there were 3 of them huddled together all facing eachother, they were having feeler fights and I was like awww look they're saying hi and BAM he kicked one. they're nuts!

Tetracolor · Post by **Tetracolor** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 4:08 pm

... now that's hilarious!! Maybe mine do it while I'm not watching. because they know if mommy saw it she would put them in ISO because she's overprotective!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 4:16 pm

lol I've been having some similar issues with Marie after Seb's molt. Marie apparently thought that the introduction of Pain, Panic, Colonel Hathi AND King Louie all while Seb was down molting was the perfect oppotunity to steal the "tank crown". Since then, poor Seb with his little hobble leg (molting deformity... Should have re-named him Nemo...

lol) has been feeler fighting his way up, but Marie will not back down and will punt him if he's persistant. The only time I've worried is when she tried to wrench his shell off his back on his first day back. Since then, it's feeler fights and punts... I say Marie is being a little witch. lol

EDIT: BTW, Seb chirps constantly... Forgot to mention that... So that is also very normal.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 4:42 pm

good because my E's are VERY vocal, and its just one guys who keeps kicking everybody lol. I'm really up on the fence about his name either Kickmz or Vinatieri(vinny for short)

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 5:39 pm

My PPs and Es only really make noise when they're fighting. Otherwise hearing them chirp is really rare. I wish my Es would chirp more, it's kind of an adorable sound, IMO.

Christa · Post by **Christa** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 6:01 pm

I used to be of the opinion that E's chirp whenever they feel like it. Over time however (too much time LOL) I've found that they usually DO have a reason to chirp and it usually does involve some sort of harassment from another crab (or person!) As I've documented on hermit-crabs.com, E's chirp even while molting sometimes!

YES they do love to kick each other. Also the boxing is fun to watch. They will first engage in an antenna war and then the pinchers start boxing. If the intruder still doesn't get outta the way, they do what I call the "face mask" that is, they grab with the legs and start flailing the antennae like mad. It is funny to watch but the crabs are actually upset so I separate them.

Crabs react differently each time to the introduction of a newbie. If a hermie can be considered "emotional" then I'd venture the E's are the most emotional of the bunch. They regularly have fits, fights, feeler wars, boxing matches, pushing contests and "face masks". On the opposite end of the spectrum, I've found Indos are very laid back but even then there are exceptions. I had one Indo that used to punch every crab that came near him. Oh, he was bad!

All these things are making me so sad for the crabs I lost in the plague that went thru my tank in 2004/05 [smilie=crybaby.gif] Waaah I really do need more hermies, yeah I think 50 more would do it. Nice round number.

hc!
Christa

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Jan 30, 2008 6:48 pm

Haha Christa! I've yet to see them pull a "face mask". Sounds both amusing and distressing at the same time.

And 50 sounds like a very round number. lol You should pick some new guys up at the New England meet up.

burnin4Christ · Post by **burnin4Christ** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 5:30 pm

mine chirp sometimes. usually i'm all comfortable in my bed ready to go to sleep and then i hear this chirping and it goes on for like 10 seconds and i jump outta bed to make sure their not killing each other and their not even close! i think they do it to A get me outta bed or B to drive me crazy.

HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Kicking, Chirping and Bullying

Kicking, Chirping and Bullying

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