HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I just witnessed the coolest thing! I bought my crabs a few new shells and to start I put a jumbo shell in the tank. Two of my larges came to try it but it was way to big for them. Instead of just leaving it for a bigger crab one of them just sat there and then the other suddenly grabbed the first one's shell. I prepared to intervene in case it started a shell fight but the just sat there. I decided to watch to see what happened. A few minutes later the third large and a medium came over. To my surprise they came and grabbed shells too! It started to make a chain of crabs. The four crabs just sat there for almost an hour until my largest crab (XL/Jumbo) came over and pushed her way to the front and grabbed the jumbo shell.This is where the awesome part happens. The biggest crab switched into the jumbo shell then the 2nd switched into his and so on. It caused this chain reaction of shell changing! Has this happened to anyone before? This is one of the coolest thing I've ever seen my crabs do!

Woah! never seen it in real life but i’m pretty sure they do that in the wild


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Oh my goodness I have never seen that before it must have been so cool to watch:)


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Crabs will sometimes do the chain-line-up thing when there is a shortage of appropriate shells.

What type and how many shells do you have for what type and how many crabs?

That's so cool! I have only seen that in this documentary!

https://youtu.be/f1dnocPQXDQ

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curlysister wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 11, 2020 6:41 pm

Crabs will sometimes do the chain-line-up thing when there is a shortage of appropriate shells.

What type and how many shells do you have for what type and how many crabs?

That would explain it. One of the largest and the XL/Jumbo were adopted recently both being described as medium. So pretty much all the shells I got were way too small. I'm just starting to add the new XL/Jumbo shells.

Incredible! I have seen it in the documentaries too, but never in my wildest dreams would I expect to see it in person. You are so very lucky.

This is why it is important that crabs have at least 3 to 5 extra shells per crab, which are of the appropriate size and type. I don't really think it is a good thing to see, it means that resources are scarce.

Yup, thanks for letting me know. I bought a lot of shells as soon as I realized that the crabs were in fact not medium. Shipping is taking a while but hopefully they will arrive soon. I do have about 30 shells in the tank but all small-large. Wasn't expecting to need jumbos any time soon but here we are.

aslansgirl89 wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 11, 2020 8:33 pm

That's so cool! I have only seen that in this documentary!

https://youtu.be/f1dnocPQXDQ

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I saw that documentary too! I didn't know this would happen in captivity. Thanks for sharing FJrocks003!

curlysister wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 13, 2020 11:26 am

This is why it is important that crabs have at least 3 to 5 extra shells per crab, which are of the appropriate size and type. I don't really think it is a good thing to see, it means that resources are scarce.

This make sense, and has caused me to think on it further. Because if there were more shells would they still form a line? Probably not although it does prove a bit of intelligence or a higher intelligence at work. Take monarch butterflies for example and how they know where to migrate even the offspring. It’s like it’s “wired in”. I almost feels like the line of hermit crabs are showing what happens when things are tested or pushed to the limits. Seems a higher power steps in that should not go unnoticed, because the awareness can make a change. It’s sad to think humans have caused the shell shortage in the wild. Wishfully thinking, maybe the future will be different. If one watches “A life on our planet” a corrective future seems very possible. And spreading the information is all the power I have to help our planet.

Links wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 05, 2020 10:09 pm

This make sense, and has caused me to think on it further. Because if there were more shells would they still form a line? Probably not although it does prove a bit of intelligence or a higher intelligence at work. Take monarch butterflies for example and how they know where to migrate even the offspring. It’s like it’s “wired in”. I almost feels like the line of hermit crabs are showing what happens when things are tested or pushed to the limits. Seems a higher power steps in that should not go unnoticed, because the awareness can make a change. It’s sad to think humans have caused the shell shortage in the wild. Wishfully thinking, maybe the future will be different. If one watches “A life on our planet” a corrective future seems very possible. And spreading the information is all the power I have to help our planet.

Wow, that was deep.

I have seen the documentary as well, I’ve only heard a couple people say they have actually seen it, I think that’s really cool. Crabs do prefer shells worn by other crabs so it may not be too bad. I’m not meaning to step on what Curly said bc more shells are always better. I believe they are far more intelligent than we know, I know they supposedly don’t have the brain capacity, or whatever technical term is supposed to be used, but I truly believe there’s a lot more to them. I like to think they make friends and learn to get used to us, or learn their names like some people say. Not getting into “they don’t have ears” and all, just that some things can’t be explained. Plus it’s more fun thinking when they’re coming to the glass they want to say hi, or some other example I can’t think of. Lol.


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Wow sounds so cool I only have two brand new hermit crabs so I do not think I would ever see something like that! SO COOL

Neat. I've seen the video of crabs on the wild doing that. You're lucky to have seen it in person.

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