HCA: Hermit Crab Association

sharky had changed shells twice last night and i got to watch the 1st change witch was way cool. after i when to bed last night he changed again, and looked like he tried to pull tom out of his shell, his large pincher was riped off, this im a lil worried about, do i need to do anything for tom??

Small mashed up foods and ISO until he molts again. Thats what I did when Nawla lost her big claw and 2 legs.

Shell disputes often lead to a peaceful draw with both the victim and the aggressor getting better shells but in some instances the victim won't willing give up it's shell allowing itself to be ripped apart.Tom needs to be removed from the enclosure if possible and isolated for a week minimum with soft foods like baby food and especially some raw or organic honey in a bottle cap.The honey is a natural antibacterial/antimicrobial agent and a super food which will help Tom recover faster.As long as Tom still has his smaller pincher he can still feed himself as that is the primary job of the appendage.Sharky may be suffering from a nutritional deficiency which can cause heightened aggression so you need to offer a different protein every day like whole raw shrimp, krill, other types of crab and even some boiled non-seasoned chicken this will help to curb his aggression towards Tom. Out of curiosity how many extra shells do you have available for your crabs?If theres not a sufficient number of spare shells per crab usually three with one being a little smaller than the crabs are currently wearing one the same size and one just a bit bigger then you will get these shell disputes quite regularly.

ok ill move his when i get home, i need to get some clean sand for the small tank..

there are 5 extra shells

Well seems you have enough shells but maybe their not the right type PP's prefer a shell with an O shaped opening and exotics tend to prefer shells with D shaped openings.Odds are you have PP's or purple pinchers as thats whats most commonly available here in the U.S. so my question is what do the shell openings look like?

the one sharky is in now looks kinda like this http://naplesseashellcompany.c...or_hermit_crabs.htmland the other shells are like thishttp://naplesseashellcompany.c...rmitcrab_shells.html

i know hermie is a PP, but i dont think sharky or tom are PP

Can we have a picture of uour three crabs?

yea once i get home ill take some pix give me about an hour or so

you're hermit crab can live without it's big claw. It uses that for defense and the smaller one to eat food. ICU would be a good Idea, also what do you feed your crabs?