Did my hermit crabs just have a fight??

Where we discuss the behavior of our hermit crabs, as in fights, pecking orders, shell swaps, etc. Please post all naked-crab posts in the Emergency forum.
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chobbychobby
Posts: 14
Joined: Sat Apr 11, 2015 4:36 pm

Did my hermit crabs just have a fight??

Post by chobbychobby » Sat Jan 28, 2017 1:57 pm

Yesterday evening I got a new crab. She's pretty big, and now the biggest of my 7 in my 49g tank. This morning I took her out to get a good look at her and make sure she's healthy and such, then I put her back in. She came face to face with another one of my crabs and they waved their antennae at each other for a bit, then new girl climbed on top of old girl while old girl waved her legs in the air all defensively like regular crabs do when you reach for them. One of them started making those weird noises but I couldn't tell which one it was. When new girl finally left, old girl lay with her legs out for a couple minutes before going back to normal. I got pictures and a video of the whole thing. It just confused me as I've never seen anything like this before. Imagehttps://vimeo.com/201451190Image


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NLindsey921
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Re: Did my hermit crabs just have a fight??

Post by NLindsey921 » Sat Jan 28, 2017 2:09 pm

I believe that the fight was your new girl establishing dominance over your old girl. They are normally harmless but I would keep an eye on them just in case.

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Dragonfreak
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Re: Did my hermit crabs just have a fight??

Post by Dragonfreak » Mon Jan 30, 2017 9:45 pm

Hi ChobbyChobby, from what I can see on the video new girl just used old girl as a step ladder...Mine do it if they are in the way

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Rawrgeous
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Re: Did my hermit crabs just have a fight??

Post by Rawrgeous » Wed Feb 01, 2017 12:38 am

Seems like a "feeler fight" to me. It's pretty normal. As long as they don't try to "rock" each other out of their shells, or actively try to reach into each others shell there usually isn't much to worry about.

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