Question for those who have had "Problem" E’s

[stewartx4]

I had something very strange happen this morning. My daughter called me at work and said she thought one of the new ruggies was dead. She said it was falling out of its shell so I had her put it in ISO and sure enough it had the smell when I got home from work. This crab just came up from molting a few days ago and looked great. I saw it in the salt water and eating and it had the cutest nails ever. On the outside there doesn’t appear to be an obvious reason why it died.

And then I started thinking. When I added the new ruggies and straws to the big tank my E was the first (and only one) to go check them out. He kind of ran around like a little maniac but he didn’t hurt any of them. I didn’t think too much about it because I’ve never seen him do anything to any other crab but he is the smallest. He is a medium and all of my others are bigger but not the new straws and ruggies, they are all very small. I am just wondering because in the beginning I had 2 E’s and I found one empty shell early on. Then about a year ago I got a tiny pp who was doing great but at my last substrate change (because of a bacterial bloom (Thanks wode for all of your help with that awful situation!!!)) I found its empty shell. The bacterial bloom wasn’t throughout the entire tank so I do not think that was the reason it died. About 6 months ago I found the shell of a very tiny straw. And lastly, I found one other new ruggie dead a few days after I put it in the big tank. I attributed it to pps but now I’m just wondering.

For those of you who have had problem E’s, did they only mess with smaller crabs? I have absolutely no proof and this all might be a coincidence but it has me wondering… Thanks for any info!!!

[hermitcrabdc]

I have an insane E! He is the largest of the tank. He has caused some problems. Firstly he attacked my smallest PP, Devise. He lost his two pinchers. Devise molted and I finally decided to put him back in the main tank. A few days later Tags (the E) Came up and attacked Devise again. Devise have been in iso since and I am going to separate the PPs and the E's once I get a heating source. Devise is the size of a quarter and this is Tags

Other than the attacks I've had minor things happen. I'm pretty sure Tags went at Winston since Winston was approaching the food dish that Tags was in.
So to answer your question, yes all the crabs that have been picked on were smaller. Hope this helps!

[stewartx4]

No, no, no... it doesn't help at all!!!!! Well actually it does but I was just hoping it was not the E causing problems! Thanks!!

[gotta-crab-em-all]

Okay, I'll do my best to explain my experience with Es, but its been awhile and I try not to think about it in detail, so bare with me!

I had 3 Es. As far as I could tell, they were either all male, or their gonopores hadn't shown up yet (I've had 2 PPs "become" females) and they were teeny / teeny-small. I had PPs in with them, either 3 or 4 - it kindof blurs together now and I don't remember exactly who was around at the same time.

After I got one specific E (Shellder) I started having problems. I don't remember the order of events, exactly, but this is essentially what went down.
One of my other Es (Shellos) came up from a molt missing his BP and armor leg. I posted about it here, and was informed that that is a common molt-attack result. Shellder was the only other crab down when Shellos was.
Kabuto (PP) came up from a molt naked and with only one leg and one claw left. I tried my best, but he didn't make it. I found Shellder in Kabuto's molt cave with his shell.
Dwebble (PP) had been missing and I had a bad feeling. I dug. I found an empty shell with a few leg fragments and, you guessed it... Shellder.
Then I had the absolute "pleasure" of having to pull Shellder off of Anorith (PP) several times.
Shellder cornered Shellos and Shellos was chirping.
etc etc...

I finally scraped together enough money to buy the supplies to set up another crabitat, and I separated the PPs from the Es. I put Shellos and Shelmet (the other Es) in an iso and kept Shellder alone in the old crabitat so he wouldn't kill anybody else. Shellos and Shelmet were rehomed to a HCA member because at that point, I was done with Es, but I didn't want to give Shellder to somebody to have him kill their crabs. I think the adopter's username here is Lobstrosity.

Shellder ended up having a bad molt, and died shortly afterward.

Since separating them out, I haven't had any aggression problems with the PPs. Which isn't really surprising, because it was never them duking it out, it was Shellder picking fights with everybody.

Anyway, the two crabs Shellder killed were larger than he was. The ones he attacked, but didn't kill, were either the same size or smaller.

[hermitcrabdc]

I hope you figure it out!

[KellyCrabbieLove]

My E's are sweet and loving to each other and the PPs. They have great personalities and are playful with the others. I personally have had only E's with this type of temperament. Just Lucky I guess.

[KellyCrabbieLove]

I named one Jockey because he rides around on one of my Large PPs. ALL...THE...TIME. lol I love them.

[kuza]

the ruggie sounds like PPs, the but rest could very easily be the aggressive E. I had to re-home my really bad one

[wodesorel]

When I had the E only tank, one of the smaller ones took out my jumbo female when she was mid-molt, and the other crabs in that tank were all small and medium. When it was down to the last four, NabbE took out BiggE who was bigger than him, while he molted as well. Size doesn't make a difference if they can get to them when they're vulnerable.

[stewartx4]

Thank you everyone for your replies! So putting all of your experiences together, it doesn’t seem like the size of the crabs matters (sometimes they pick on smaller ones and sometimes larger). That makes me feel better especially since there are still very small straws and ruggies under now. I didn’t really think pps on the 2nd ruggie because it molted just fine but maybe it was since it was still new. I really hope that is what happened! And since there wasn’t any visual damage to either ruggie maybe they weren’t attacked at all. They were just found dead, no legs or shell missing. For now I guess I will just keep a close eye on everyone. I’ve never had any problems with this e (that I have witnessed) so I am not going to put the blame on him yet but the coincidences do worry me a bit. Thanks again everyone!

[Skymall007]

I have one sometimes aggressive pp who has attacked almost everyone recently. He ha just been moody. Perhaps I got lucky with all of my Es because I have had very few problems. Friendlyfeat however, did frequently bother the other crabs. Sometimes he would just threaten them. He was best friends with another E until he broke that off with a shell fight I interrupted. He never killed anyone that I know of he seemed to enjoy just bothering them. I know because once sputnik had to climb over upsidedown on the hermit net. Upssidedosn chirped angrily. Friendlyfeat woke up and then ran over to upsidedown and walked over him as slowly as possible. I miss that crab