Hermit crab tries to eat my other smaller hermit crab?

[isturgill]

Hi everyone, I'm new to hermit crabs and to this forum so I need some help from the experts in here. My daughter got this cute little guy from school (her teacher had a habitab in their classroom) we didn't know much about hermit crabs but my daughter after a few months kept telling me that they are social creatures and that they like to have friends so we went to the pet shop and got him a friend but this second one is a little bigger but we just thought that they all get along fine since the pet store has them all together anyways the little one molted and one day we put them on the floor together and the bigger one pull the little one out of his shell, I managed to take the little one away from the bigger one and somehow I put him or helped him back to his shell since that day we decided to make an ISO tank just for the little one, now every time that we try to put the little one back in the other tank, ( by the way we bought another hermit crab about the size of the second one so two are close in size) with the other two but every time we do this the same one that pull him out of his shell gets right on top of his shell and I don't know if he is trying to play with him or he is attacking him to kill him so we still have the little guy by himself which I feel so bad because he has none to play with, can anybody give me your advise regarding of this behavior please. Also if the little one goes inside his shell, the bigger one will try to turn his shell around so we get scared and end up putting the little one in the ISO, its been close to a year and half since the first incident and I don't know what to make of this behavior between my crabs.

Any advise would be great!
thanks,

Ivette

[soilentgringa]

How many shells do you have? Each crab needs at least 3-5 extra shells in shapes they like in incrementally larger sizes.
Here is the link to the care guides so check them out and welcome to HCA!

http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ph ... hp?t=92457



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[isturgill]

We have plenty of shells in their habitat, it is just every time we try to put the little one together with the other one not necessarily in the habitat, like when my daughter cleans them she puts them on the floor to walk around and the bigger one ends up coming towards the little one and starts grabbing him and holds on to him so we get scared and we have to separate them and believe me, he just doesn't want to let go. I don't want to see my daughter sad, she loves all of her crabby friends but we are scared that the bigger one will kill the little guy. I just don't understand why if I see all these crabs in the pet store together in one small habitat and they seem to get along just fine or maybe we don't see who gets eaten

thank you for your response and your welcome to the group.

Ivette

[kornchaser]

This can be any number of things from pure personality of the crab to not enough proteins in his diet to he wants the other's shell etc... Try filling out the help/care thingy under emergencies I believe and it'll help narrow down the cause.


Mommy of 12 PP babies - Baby, Toby, Sid, Matty, Junior, Kaylee, Aries, Adrian, Turbo, Flower, Boo and Freckles.
RIP Octavius

[soilentgringa]

I'm sorry did you say your daughter was cleaning them and taking them out of the habitat? They really should not be handled and they should not be bathed at all unless they have mites sticking to them.
It also could be showing aggression due to needing to molt. I am going to post the Emergency Template questions for you to fill out so that we can assist you in addressing areas of concern.
They could also not be getting enough protein in their diet.


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[soilentgringa]

http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ph ... hp?t=46102

Please answer these questions so we can help you help your crabs!

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[isturgill]

I meant that my daughter sprays their habitat and removes the old food and gives them food so she takes the crabs and puts them on the floor to walk around. I really don't think its a food issue either since we give them a variety of foods daily, I have bought a package with a variety of items from a site online especially for crabs and we also add other foods that we have here at home that we have read that are okay to give the crabs, like I said we have three crabs now, but two are close in size and they live together with no issues, don't bother each other. this issue I'm having is just when the little one is out and the one crab that its a bit bigger comes around, he just doesn't seem to like the little one for some reason that I can't explain.

thanks for trying to help me with this issue.

Ivette

[wodesorel]

Ivette, have you ever tried bathing them all before the introductions? Sometimes what happens is that they smell that the other crab is not from their colony, and it causes them to attack the 'intruder'. Giving all parties in a dip in dechlorinated freshwater prior to meeting means they all smell the same.

If that doesn't/hasn't worked, then wait until they've changed shells and had a molt. Most likely it's something with the shells that is triggering it, so waiting until they've moved on to something different should be the key to it not happening again. (Please check out the Shell Guide for ideas of what they like to wear - the majority of shells sold in pet shops are completely the wrong shape! viewtopic.php?f=24&t=92552 ) Molting will allow them to heal any injuries that you may not be able to see and often improves their temperament, and reintroduction almost always work afterwards IF it's something that is entirely behavioural.

[isturgill]

Thank you very much for your answer and no I haven't tried that yet, I guess its worth the try. I think one is molting right now because I haven't seen it in a while but I hear noises every now and then. Only Shelly which is the one that keeps attacking the little one is out and he is a very outgoing friendly crab. The little one just molted not long ago and for some reason I think he is about to do it again because he keeps on burring himself so I will give the bath a try and see what happens. Thank you very much.

Ivette