What To Do With a Bully?
Posted: Sat Jun 24, 2017 9:44 pm
Hi all,
A few weeks ago Hammy, my medium-ish crab was picking on Henry, another crab roughly the same size. When I say "picking" Hammy was really close to him, really far out of his shell while Henry was curled up really far inside his. I thought it was just a little territorial "this is my spot" fight so I sat them in different spots in the tank (they were in a corner) and forgot about it. Then the next day they were in the same corner, but Hammy was on top of Henry. I separated them and misted Hammy (not enough to actually do anything! I needed to mist the tank anyway so I just misted the part he was in to freak him out) and kind of hid Henry inside a hut. Then the day after that, in the exact same corner, Hammy was on top of Henry and was attacking him! I had to place two plastic spoons between them to make him let go.
I thought it was a shell fight because they both had the same size and type of shell, even though they were both painted (they hadn't changed since I brought them home from the pet store) so I placed a divider in the tank and gave him plenty of shell choices. After about a week Hammy hadn't changed, or even bothered looking at the shells. (He kept tunneling underneath them and making them fall into holes, though, but I don't know if that's important.) Because of that I believed it wasn't a shell fight after all, so I decided after I changed the substrate I would add him back in with the other crabs.
Well, I placed them all in a cardboard box and observed them while my brother was taking out the decorations. Hammy started pacing in circles around the box, Spider-Man (the littlest) hid inside the empty water bowl, and Henry just kinda sat there. I went to the other side of the room for about 20 seconds and heard awful squeaking coming from the box -- Hammy was attacking Henry even worse than before!!! I took Hammy out and placed him in a plastic cup. He kept trying to attack me through the plastic, something NONE of my crabs had ever tried before. As soon as Hammy was out the others in the box became more active, so I'm guessing they were all scared of him?
I couldn't give him his own tank because of reasons so I placed a divider in the tank and isolated him. We also ended up finding a molter, so we had to isolate the molter as well. So now I have a 29 gal tank with 4 crabs and two dividers, and I'm not sure what to make of it.
I'm going to eventually add the molter back in with the others, but what do I do with the bully??? I clearly can't add him back unless I want my other crabs hurt or worse. I know hermies are social, so is it abuse to just leave him isolated? Is there a way to train him out of bullying? I know some crab owners go by "letting nature take its course" but I just don't have the heart to do that when I can do something about it. I had an incident before where my largest crab would sit on top of the others, but I now realize he wasn't bullying at all, or at least not as bad as this.
I also had an incident when one of my other crabs died from surface molting/stress. I was pretty sure he was dead but placed a cup over him anyway because he didn't smell, but I guess I didn't place it far down enough because I found (guess who) Hammy tearing him to shreds a few days later. Now that I think of it, it was only a little while before the bullying began. Is this a form of crabbie cannibalism?
What am I supposed to do??? I am very, VERY confused. Has something like this ever happened before? I'd prefer to leave him isolated, but again, would that be abuse?
A few weeks ago Hammy, my medium-ish crab was picking on Henry, another crab roughly the same size. When I say "picking" Hammy was really close to him, really far out of his shell while Henry was curled up really far inside his. I thought it was just a little territorial "this is my spot" fight so I sat them in different spots in the tank (they were in a corner) and forgot about it. Then the next day they were in the same corner, but Hammy was on top of Henry. I separated them and misted Hammy (not enough to actually do anything! I needed to mist the tank anyway so I just misted the part he was in to freak him out) and kind of hid Henry inside a hut. Then the day after that, in the exact same corner, Hammy was on top of Henry and was attacking him! I had to place two plastic spoons between them to make him let go.
I thought it was a shell fight because they both had the same size and type of shell, even though they were both painted (they hadn't changed since I brought them home from the pet store) so I placed a divider in the tank and gave him plenty of shell choices. After about a week Hammy hadn't changed, or even bothered looking at the shells. (He kept tunneling underneath them and making them fall into holes, though, but I don't know if that's important.) Because of that I believed it wasn't a shell fight after all, so I decided after I changed the substrate I would add him back in with the other crabs.
Well, I placed them all in a cardboard box and observed them while my brother was taking out the decorations. Hammy started pacing in circles around the box, Spider-Man (the littlest) hid inside the empty water bowl, and Henry just kinda sat there. I went to the other side of the room for about 20 seconds and heard awful squeaking coming from the box -- Hammy was attacking Henry even worse than before!!! I took Hammy out and placed him in a plastic cup. He kept trying to attack me through the plastic, something NONE of my crabs had ever tried before. As soon as Hammy was out the others in the box became more active, so I'm guessing they were all scared of him?
I couldn't give him his own tank because of reasons so I placed a divider in the tank and isolated him. We also ended up finding a molter, so we had to isolate the molter as well. So now I have a 29 gal tank with 4 crabs and two dividers, and I'm not sure what to make of it.
I'm going to eventually add the molter back in with the others, but what do I do with the bully??? I clearly can't add him back unless I want my other crabs hurt or worse. I know hermies are social, so is it abuse to just leave him isolated? Is there a way to train him out of bullying? I know some crab owners go by "letting nature take its course" but I just don't have the heart to do that when I can do something about it. I had an incident before where my largest crab would sit on top of the others, but I now realize he wasn't bullying at all, or at least not as bad as this.
I also had an incident when one of my other crabs died from surface molting/stress. I was pretty sure he was dead but placed a cup over him anyway because he didn't smell, but I guess I didn't place it far down enough because I found (guess who) Hammy tearing him to shreds a few days later. Now that I think of it, it was only a little while before the bullying began. Is this a form of crabbie cannibalism?
What am I supposed to do??? I am very, VERY confused. Has something like this ever happened before? I'd prefer to leave him isolated, but again, would that be abuse?