HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Unfortunately, neither of my "blueberries" made it. I wasn't surprised, seeing their conditions beforehand, but I tried. :/ Today, I picked up two medium E's at Petco and they're ridiculously adorable and are active, trying on shells, and even tunneling in my 29G tank. I have two other crabs in my ISO 10G, both are PP's. How should I introduce these two into my 29G tank? I'm not too familiar with E's, they seem to be climbing all over each other, but other than that, they just seem really active. I gave them short bathes with a got them. Will the two species be hostile towards each other? My PP's are very calm. Thank you. :)

PPs and Es make really great tank mates, so I've heard. As long as they have their species buddy. =)

My Es are more active than I planned on them to be. Definitely more active during the day than my friend's crabs, who are only active really strictly at night. Introduce them during a day that you can kind of monitor the tank every couple of hours. Let the two in the tank, and make sure to keep an eye on how they are all interacting. Any signs of chirping, aggression, ect. is obviously a reason to pull them out and try it again gradually once more. A good assurance to make sure they don't have any fatal fights is to provide as many sea shells as possible in their sizes. =) E's tend to like a little bit of smaller-tighter fitting shells. They like their legs to kind of dangle outwards, unlike PPs who like to fold all the way up into their shells.

If you haven't bathed the PPs already, I would. Just to get their scents neutral. =)

@HaydenHermie Yea then I'll plan on doing it tomorrow when I can check periodically, because my PP's usually come out at night. I already love my E's so I hope they get along. :) Does bathing them in salt water count to neutralize them? I have TONS of shells, so shell fights won't be a problem, hopefully.

I have Es and PPs in the same tank and they get along. My smaller ones often hitch rides on the back of my biggest PP and it's very cute.

I'm afraid that my biggest PP might have a bit more aggression than the other ones. He's done very well with my other PP's. What are signs that I should break up a fight? I know what a shell fight usually looks like, but when they start using their big pincher in any way should I worry? If there's a link that can explain this more to me I'd appreciate it. :)

The way I usually do it is pushing is allowed, grabbing your tankmate with the BP is not. Now if the one being grabbed is an E that just walked up and smacked the PP I just watch to make sure it doesn't get out of hand. Sometimes the Es need to be put back in their place.

I have had to grab and shell tap bella more then once for roughing up tank mates. And she stats it too! But she's also the one that comes right up to me when I fix up the tank or food. She'll go right to my hand and feeler me for a bit then just sit there.

CrabbyMom33 wrote:The way I usually do it is pushing is allowed, grabbing your tankmate with the BP is not. Now if the one being grabbed is an E that just walked up and smacked the PP I just watch to make sure it doesn't get out of hand. Sometimes the Es need to be put back in their place.

I love how schoolyard this sounds!!! But oh so true when it comes to those little devils.