HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hi there, I have a 3~4 year old hermit crab in a 10 gallon tank at my office. It is the size of golf ball and has been living alone for almost 2 years since he killed his last roommate (he clipped the poor guy's shell into pieces). Since this is an office pet, I cannot go beyond 10 gallon. For the last 2 years he seems to be quite active and eats A LOT and molted 3 or 4 times. He also changes shell often just for fun (they are same sizes), so my question is:

It seems that nothing is wrong with him living alone so should I keep it that way or should I follow what the care guide says and give him a roommate?

I just want Blackberry to be happy and live a long life.

marymary wrote:Hi there, I have a 3~4 year old hermit crab in a 10 gallon tank at my office. It is the size of golf ball and has been living alone for almost 2 years since he killed his last roommate (he clipped the poor guy's shell into pieces). Since this is an office pet, I cannot go beyond 10 gallon. For the last 2 years he seems to be quite active and eats A LOT and molted 3 or 4 times. He also changes shell often just for fun (they are same sizes), so my question is:

It seems that nothing is wrong with him living alone so should I keep it that way or should I follow what the care guide says and give him a roommate?

I just want Blackberry to be happy and live a long life.

Yes, I would say that he’d need another crab, as they are social. They tend to kill others in a shell fight, after molting, or because they smell like an intruder. There are certain things that need to be followed when getting new crabs.

You must dip the new one into the freshwater pool of the crabitat, then they won’t smell like a different crab which would lead to an attack.
They must also be offered extra shells, which the recommended number is at least three extras per crab, with many more being recommended.

StellaCrab wrote:

marymary wrote:Hi there, I have a 3~4 year old hermit crab in a 10 gallon tank at my office. It is the size of golf ball and has been living alone for almost 2 years since he killed his last roommate (he clipped the poor guy's shell into pieces). Since this is an office pet, I cannot go beyond 10 gallon. For the last 2 years he seems to be quite active and eats A LOT and molted 3 or 4 times. He also changes shell often just for fun (they are same sizes), so my question is:

It seems that nothing is wrong with him living alone so should I keep it that way or should I follow what the care guide says and give him a roommate?

I just want Blackberry to be happy and live a long life.

Yes, I would say that he’d need another crab, as they are social. They tend to kill others in a shell fight, after molting, or because they smell like an intruder. There are certain things that need to be followed when getting new crabs.

You must dip the new one into the freshwater pool of the crabitat, then they won’t smell like a different crab which would lead to an attack.
They must also be offered extra shells, which the recommended number is at least three extras per crab, with many more being recommended.

I wanted to point out that the attacks for shells and post molting are not super common, unless you don't provide enough shells or your substrate isn't very deep.

A lot of times crabs are gone for several weeks to months to molt and when they reemerge there can be little scuffles between the crabs which is totally normal. As long as you aren't witnessing active aggression like open pincher grabbing of limbs, they'll usually go on about their business.

HCA does not officially recommend dipping them in the freshwater when introducing to a new tank or post molt. Some crabbers have found it to be helpful but that's just anecdotal evidence so far.

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soilentgringa wrote:

StellaCrab wrote:

marymary wrote:Hi there, I have a 3~4 year old hermit crab in a 10 gallon tank at my office. It is the size of golf ball and has been living alone for almost 2 years since he killed his last roommate (he clipped the poor guy's shell into pieces). Since this is an office pet, I cannot go beyond 10 gallon. For the last 2 years he seems to be quite active and eats A LOT and molted 3 or 4 times. He also changes shell often just for fun (they are same sizes), so my question is:

It seems that nothing is wrong with him living alone so should I keep it that way or should I follow what the care guide says and give him a roommate?

I just want Blackberry to be happy and live a long life.

Yes, I would say that he’d need another crab, as they are social. They tend to kill others in a shell fight, after molting, or because they smell like an intruder. There are certain things that need to be followed when getting new crabs.

You must dip the new one into the freshwater pool of the crabitat, then they won’t smell like a different crab which would lead to an attack.
They must also be offered extra shells, which the recommended number is at least three extras per crab, with many more being recommended.

I wanted to point out that the attacks for shells and post molting are not super common, unless you don't provide enough shells or your substrate isn't very deep.

A lot of times crabs are gone for several weeks to months to molt and when they reemerge there can be little scuffles between the crabs which is totally normal. As long as you aren't witnessing active aggression like open pincher grabbing of limbs, they'll usually go on about their business.

HCA does not officially recommend dipping them in the freshwater when introducing to a new tank or post molt. Some crabbers have found it to be helpful but that's just anecdotal evidence so far.

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Yes, I really haven’t ever dipped my new ones into the pool, but I haven’t bought a crab since last summer. I also have never experienced much aggression, only shell steals after my crab had issues molting.

soilentgringa wrote:

StellaCrab wrote:

marymary wrote:Hi there, I have a 3~4 year old hermit crab in a 10 gallon tank at my office. It is the size of golf ball and has been living alone for almost 2 years since he killed his last roommate (he clipped the poor guy's shell into pieces). Since this is an office pet, I cannot go beyond 10 gallon. For the last 2 years he seems to be quite active and eats A LOT and molted 3 or 4 times. He also changes shell often just for fun (they are same sizes), so my question is:

It seems that nothing is wrong with him living alone so should I keep it that way or should I follow what the care guide says and give him a roommate?

I just want Blackberry to be happy and live a long life.

Yes, I would say that he’d need another crab, as they are social. They tend to kill others in a shell fight, after molting, or because they smell like an intruder. There are certain things that need to be followed when getting new crabs.

You must dip the new one into the freshwater pool of the crabitat, then they won’t smell like a different crab which would lead to an attack.
They must also be offered extra shells, which the recommended number is at least three extras per crab, with many more being recommended.

I wanted to point out that the attacks for shells and post molting are not super common, unless you don't provide enough shells or your substrate isn't very deep.

A lot of times crabs are gone for several weeks to months to molt and when they reemerge there can be little scuffles between the crabs which is totally normal. As long as you aren't witnessing active aggression like open pincher grabbing of limbs, they'll usually go on about their business.

HCA does not officially recommend dipping them in the freshwater when introducing to a new tank or post molt. Some crabbers have found it to be helpful but that's just anecdotal evidence so far.

Sent from my LGMS550 using Tapatalk

Well that doesn't make sense. The other crab was much smaller so they don't need the same shell and I had a dozen shells in there. Why would Blackberry want to steal the shell of a much smaller crab anyway. Blackberry just pinched the shell of the smaller crab into pieces... And no they were not molting. I did see some aggression from Blackberry thou; he climbed onto the smaller crab and they seemed to be balling up and struggling and in a few days, the smaller one died outside of his shell with his shell in pieces...

marymary wrote:

soilentgringa wrote:

StellaCrab wrote: Yes, I would say that he’d need another crab, as they are social. They tend to kill others in a shell fight, after molting, or because they smell like an intruder. There are certain things that need to be followed when getting new crabs.

You must dip the new one into the freshwater pool of the crabitat, then they won’t smell like a different crab which would lead to an attack.
They must also be offered extra shells, which the recommended number is at least three extras per crab, with many more being recommended.

I wanted to point out that the attacks for shells and post molting are not super common, unless you don't provide enough shells or your substrate isn't very deep.

A lot of times crabs are gone for several weeks to months to molt and when they reemerge there can be little scuffles between the crabs which is totally normal. As long as you aren't witnessing active aggression like open pincher grabbing of limbs, they'll usually go on about their business.

HCA does not officially recommend dipping them in the freshwater when introducing to a new tank or post molt. Some crabbers have found it to be helpful but that's just anecdotal evidence so far.

Sent from my LGMS550 using Tapatalk

Well that doesn't make sense. The other crab was much smaller so they don't need the same shell and I had a dozen shells in there. Why would Blackberry want to steal the shell of a much smaller crab anyway. Blackberry just pinched the shell of the smaller crab into pieces... And no they were not molting. I did see some aggression from Blackberry thou; he climbed onto the smaller crab and they seemed to be balling up and struggling and in a few days, the smaller one died outside of his shell with his shell in pieces...

A lot of factors could have affected the crabs behavior.

If you will fill these out a member of the mod or admin team can help address what may have happened.

http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ph ... 27&t=46102

Just copy paste the questions and answers into this thread.

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I know this won't be a popular opinion, but if the crab is active and healthy and your limit is a 10 gallon, I would not recommend getting a second. That's asking a lot from a crab that has already exhibited odd behaviour around its own kind, and a 10 won't give medium crabs much space to themsleves. Plus, two crabs are likely to outgrow that tank in a couple of years.

wodesorel wrote:I know this won't be a popular opinion, but if the crab is active and healthy and your limit is a 10 gallon, I would not recommend getting a second. That's asking a lot from a crab that has already exhibited odd behaviour around its own kind, and a 10 won't give medium crabs much space to themsleves. Plus, two crabs are likely to outgrow that tank in a couple of years.

I feel like this is something to take into consideration as well. My oldest crabs lived alone for years before they came to me.

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So after careful consideration, I got a second crab for Blackberry. It is slightly smaller, and i named it Strawberry. As soon as I put Strawberry into the tank, Blackberry went to her(?) and start pushing her around. Strawberry went into the sand for 2 weeks and now surfaced again. No sign of molting. I prepared extra food bowl so they don't have to fight over it, but Blackberry managed to prevent Strawberry from going either one of the bowl. I put some banana in front of Strawberry but she only took a few bites before moving away, so I am worried that shes not eating enough. Normally if it were Blackberry, he would eat up the whole piece of banana no problem.

Just this morning, I found a piece of front leg on the sand. It was Strawberry's. There were dents on it so most likely Blackberry teared it up...

I could put up a divider between the 2 but that defeats the purpose of getting another crab for Blackberry, so maybe I should just return Strawberry to the store?

Thanks
Mary

Correction. I checked on both Blackberry and Strawberry and find no missing limb so that loose limb is just from Strawberry molting. But everything else still stands...

It sounds like blackberry is just showing who is boss. As long as theirs not physical aggression - like hurting, not just pushing - I would leave them be and let them settle it out.

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It looks like you've got most of it under control for now; crossing my fingers!