HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I adopted 8 crabs several weeks ago. 4 are E's. I love them but they have pretty much taken over the tank, and if I try to add a new crab, they immediately pounce on him. And not just the "I am the boss" shoving match. This is all out war!

I adopted a single yesterday, and since there are only 13 crabs in that 55 gallon, I wanted to put him in there. I rinsed him in the pool, and as soon as they spotted him, they RAN down, one from each side, surrounded him, and grabbed him and started shaking, pinching, etc. Poor thing was petrified! So I moved him to the 29.

Will I ever be able to add more crabs? Any suggestions?

Es are the curse of many tanks. If you are determined and committed to having them all cohabitate, then i recommend stuffing your tat with stuff crabs can use to hide and seek refuge. Have 4-6 moss pits, throw a bunch of plants in there, cram a bunch of climbing wood in there. Make it harder for Es to reach others, and give others more escape routes. Then take a second look at what you're feeding, offering more variety of protein, like dead bugs, live bugs, meat, seafood. My Es really liked scrambled eggs for a bit, before their last molts. Then get more shells, if you have space, to keep them busy and have more stuff to do. All the while, add more sub. As much as your heating element will allow. And ultimately, get a bigger tank. 13 in a 55 seems crowded to me. I have a 75, which seems small for my 3 Es and 2 PPs. It's not a gallon per crab kind of small. Just small for Es because they are so hyper and move so fast.
I recently considered burying stuff into the sub to provide underground cover, but also to make it like a maze underground. I am hoping that can slow crabs down and virtually expand space. Something like this with no notch: http://m.homedepot.com/p/Keeper-4-in-Pl ... 204749580/


Crabbers unite!!!

And if all that doesn't work, I'd suggest species only tanks. Doesn't guarantee things will be better but it seems to work for some. Good luck!

13 in a 55 would be the absolute maximum if they were small and you planned on upgrading soon. I have 11 in mine and am saving for a 75 gal because I've noticed some serious territorial knocking around in the last few days. Like crabs actively knocking others over or off of food dishes and bridges!!!

Thanks for the help ! I thought 10-15 was pretty low in a 55, since half are very small, a few mediums , and really only 2 I would say are large. I have a ton of stuff in there. 3 moss pits, 2 shells shops, big pools, climbing stuff and vines and branches...but I guess this a good time to think about getting that second 55 I have had my eye on!

For what it's worth, I have 18 crabs in my 55 gallon. Most are teeny/small, a couple smaller mediums, and a large. They have tons of substrate and do fine, BUT they're all purple pinchers who are lazy slugs - I won't add any more crabs, and if any E's were in the mix I would never have this many. I also plan on upgrading to at least a 90 gallon in the future.

Of course, I encourage you to upgrade because you can never have too big of a tank, or too many tanks.

If you had stuck with just PPs I think you would have been fine with 14 (possibly more) in a 55 gallon. It's a rare PP that gives others trouble. Es are more likely to cause headaches, and if you do get a bad crab (or several) then they need the most space you can give them so they can steer clear of each other. When I had an E only tank I started with 11 in a 55 gallon and after one year there were three survivors and those three were still going after each other.

Yup, sorry about the E's, they have known aggressive tendencies and sometimes have to be segregated from the rest, or even each other.

Have the E's molted yet? Sometimes that helps aggression problems (but not always). I guess I got lucky with my E's, they get along fine with the PP's and change shells almost as often. I do think that they need deeper substrate (like a bare minimum of 9 inches) and they do not take crowding well at all. They also like warmer temps. I keep my tanks around 82-84 with the humidity higher too. The PP's handle this just fine.

Wow, I can't imagine having so many crabs and they killed each other like that, Wode! How heartbreaking.

The E's I have were adopted one's who have all been through molts several times. They have allowed my one big pp into their "gang", but he was my first, who murdered 2 of his tank mates, so..birds of a feather, right?! Or....crabs of a claw?

Anyway, I guess I will leave that tank as it is, and keep an eye open for my molters. I have one down that I have seen by the glass, and he is big, and my big guy, who went down right after Christmas. I hope he is ok. And of course, my little I hired molter, who is in iso. I will put her in a different tank when she is done.

I don't have any problems with my two E's, Mr. Pinch and Wrecks, but Citizen Snips is a real jerk! I got Wrecks after the other two and Citizen Snips kept sneaking up behind him trying to steal his shell. One day Citizen Snips tried to attack Wrecks from the front and Wrecks kicked him across the tank... he doesn't bother Wrecks too much anymore!

i'm always so shocked about these stories because I've had E's for awhile now and they haven't ever done anything out of the ordinary. Hope nothing changes

To update, a couple of weeks ago, All of my crabs were up, except the one large e, and they all got along fine. And it was amazing seeing that many crabs interact.

Last week, the big e came up, and half of the pp's went down! Can't say I blame them! She is a devil!

Thats whats up! Glad to hear they are playing nice. I always have to keep my eyes on my Es though. I can never tell when one of them is going to do something crazy.