HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Happy New Year!!!!!!

I am wondering about crab dominancy I know they have some sort of "pecking order" but I want to know more and how to identify it. I know that sometimes when my crabs are in their food dish one will take his pincher and shove the other one out. This doesn't happen all the time but I do see it sometimes. Oh and my crabs have (I havent caught them doing this this year as their tank has evolved making it more difficult to catch what they are up to) rolled in their food like they come out quite a bit and seem to roll in the food dish. This sometimes causes the food dish to even stick to the top of their shell because they have rolled in things like honey and peanut butter. Also my one crab also has done it to my moms hand! In between yours fingers you have flaps of skin and he rolled in her flesh! Let me know what this is about pls and thanks.

Hmm, the "food rolling" is new to me. I've never seen it before in my tank, definitely odd.
And with the pecking order, yes, I have an order in my tank too. Pine is most dominant and usually gets to the food first, claims shells first, ect. Dominancy can be normal.

Pumpkincrab wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 17, 2021 6:23 pm

Hmm, the "food rolling" is new to me. I've never seen it before in my tank, definitely odd.
And with the pecking order, yes, I have an order in my tank too. Pine is most dominant and usually gets to the food first, claims shells first, ect. Dominancy can be normal.

I haven't knoticed a pecking order necessarily. Sometimes I will see one be dominant but that crab won't always be the one being dominant. Do you know of any articles maybe? I am so interested in their behavior, as I know so little about it. Thank you for responding and helping me out.

My crabs do this too! Especially my biggest. They roll almost entirely out of their shells when there's fresh food they particularly enjoy, like chicken or pineapple or fresh eggshell. And then they will sit and eat their food like that too. Its funny to see, but I have no clue why they do it. It seems like it would leave them vulnerable!

My big one will also take his outer leg and shove the others out of the food dish as he single-mindedly chomps away. I got a wider food dish and now they tend to be more amenable to sharing.