HCA: Hermit Crab Association

For the past 24 hours one of my small Es, Moe, has been out to get one of my medium PPs, Spunky. No other crab is bothering Spunky and Moe isn't bothering anyone else. I had to break up fights several times last night, both with Moe hanging on to the back of Spunky's shell and with Spunky upside down withdrawn in her shell with Moe over top of her. This afternoon after gettting up for about the 10th time to figure out who was chirping - - always Spunky and due to Moe - - I decided I'd had enough. Moe has landed himself some time in solitary confinement!

The kritter keeper that we had initially was a good solution for this. I have it in my 90, so the conditions are the same. Moe has it pretty good in solitary - 2 water bowls, a shell of food, worm castings and minerals on the substrate, plus moss and a plant for hiding. He's not happy! Yeah, and the sign placement was not random.

For those who have separated a crab for aggression, how long do you think I should leave him in there?

Bad Moe! *squirts with water*
One of my blues was terrorizing Betelgeuse, so I gave her a 24 hour time out, reintroduced them and they seemed fine. If they aren't fine after 24 hours you could always give him another day, try again, and maybe up it to two days or three if he continues to not cooperate
Good luck
Poor Spunky

My PP (peekee) was being very aggresive I would isolate her for a day or two and when she came back to the community tank she still was still crabby with the other guys. I ended up isolating her for a week, after that i decided I her time out was enough. Ever since then she has been an angel!

aw, silly little E :/ I've only had to seperate once due to aggresion. It was one of my adopteed E's when I first brought her home. She was bothering one of my PP's and placing her oppisite in the tank didn't work, so I put her in the ISO. She was only in there overnight (running around crazy when I first put her in there!) and by morning I could see she calmed down and replaced her in the main tank. No problems since. Hope that helps!

This is one mad E! He has totally trashed the kritter keeper. He dumped both water bowls, pushed the shell of food into the water dish, just generally made a mess! I opened it up to give him some dinner, cleaned up his mess and gave him new water. If he trashes it again he'll have to live with it that way until tomorrow evening. I suspect he'll be ready to be back in the tank tomorrow, but I just hope he behaves. Silly crab!

Wow! What a little stinker! I hope he behaves himself when he goes back into general population!

This was too good to pass up! Apparently it's a slow night in the tank and watching the dude is solitary is good entertainment! My 2 big girls are on the cholla, a medium PP under it, a small E off to the left and a small PP up on the bridge in the white shell (it dropped down when I walked up). All are sitting and watching the prisoner!

Hahahahaha! Love that pic

Oh man, I've had this issue with an E targeting specific crabs for extended periods of time before. He eventually calmed down and I never figured out what was going on. :/

Anyways, I hope the little monster starts to behave himself soon for you!

Great pictures though.