HCA: Hermit Crab Association

It's only been the last day and only a couple of times at that. I'll walk by the room and I hear this little, low chirp. They're in a mudroom beside the door and I'll leave the door open when it's really warm out and let some fresh air in. At first, I thought maybe it was a bird or something even though it didn't quite sound like one. I've seen a video of E's chirping, it sounded sort of like that, but not as loud and it stopped when I approached. It's the more active, big crab that does it. I'm fairly sure it's a PP, although I did get all confused reading about the defining characteristics of each species of crab, but I've never seen a description that said they chirped...even though it would make sense if they did even if not to the same degree as an E.

And what does it mean for them to chirp? I've been doing my own chirping to them as just some little way to communicate, lol, as well as holding my finger up to do an "high-five" with this one. He's fairly social and comes right out immediately and the little antennae touch my finger when I do it. It's just him checking things out but I find it amusing.

Char, just wondering...

Yeah all crabs chirp, though E's are the more vocal ones. My big little guy Horus chitters at me every time I pick him up. Almost like he's telling me off for disturbing him.

Hey Charlene316,

Well my E's chirp almost every night. I would imagine all species of hermit crabs chirp. Not too sure about it but would make sense. My guyz chirp, its funny to hear the first time ya do hear them.

Canadiancrabguy

Lasuna wrote:Almost like he's telling me off for disturbing him.

All species must have a way of saying "bugger off" I guess.

Canadiancrabguy wrote:Hey Charlene316,

Well my E's chirp almost every night. I would imagine all species of hermit crabs chirp. Not too sure about it but would make sense. My guyz chirp, its funny to hear the first time ya do hear them.

Canadiancrabguy

That's rather what I thought. It doesn't make sense for this species or that species to chirp and others not. We just might not hear them; it was very low and I probably only heard because I have great hearing (for the time being at least lol).

You're more likely to hear Es chirp than PPs. PPs are much more chill than Es and the chances of them being annoyed by you is a bit less lol

Yep, all hermies chirp. Mostly they chirp when they feel threatened...But sometimes they will just chirp for fun. Once one of my crabs started chirping so I went to go see why, and he was just sitting alone in his hut...chirping. He stopped after a minute, though. I guess he was just preforming his most famous song, "The Chirp."

I don't think he was chirping because he was annoyed by my presence, I hadn't even been in the room, or the house, previous to hearing him. I'm not sure why he was doing it. Talking to himself? Or maybe a little lonely; he is more active during the day than his companion who seems to prefer sticking to the term "nocturnal" and sleeping the entirety of it away.

My Es chirp because they can. My PPs and Straws chirp when the Es have them upside down and are standing on them. I've heard of people having crabs that are dug down chirp in an apparent attempt to communicate where they are to the others under ground.

Whenever I hear chirping I do go see what is going on. Sometimes a crab is being hassled by someone and sometimes I intervene if it gets too bad. Most of the time it is one of the Es and when I walk up they stop.

None of my crabs really chirp. Not even my E's. Given the exception that they sometimes tend to tick each other off and then they will chirp, but other than that they are silent. They act like normal crabs and trash my tanks.

I've heard mine( PP's) chirp. They do it when they are bugged

Once my PP chirped because he was so happy I put in some new fake plants. Either that or he couldn't climb down

I always fly to the tank when my PPs make noise as it's a rarity and it usually means that somecrab is in serious trouble. I don't have noisy crabs that like to chirp just for the heck of it, but I know that it is a possibly. The trick is to figure out if you just have a talker that you can ignore or if something more is going on!

I have 3 PPs, and so far I haven't heard any chirps. I would like to hear it at least once from them, but hopefully not from then being in a bad situation, of course. For now I have to be content with hearing their little shells tap against the glass.

Only one of my PPs chirps, she usually only does it when its really quiet though, and so far only around twilight as well. She's mainly nocturnal so I think it may be like her little wake up call