Establishing a colony

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 8:31 am

I'm starting to think that there are really 2 setup times;
establishing the tank so it is stable
and then establishing the colony
Just putting a bunch of crabs together doesn't make a colony. I've noticed that only after several weeks together do they begin to interact well and really share the space.
Any thoughts?

hermiefanatic · Post by **hermiefanatic** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 9:53 am

i have noticed a similar thing. when i add a new crab to my existing colo0ny, the new crab generally will gnore the others, and vice versa.
after a week or s, then do i seem them interacting.

Tetracolor · Post by **Tetracolor** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 11:24 am

When I add new crabs, the older crabs all come out and have a party with the new ones...

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 12:55 pm

I have been also wondering if having crabs that are well adjusted to their human helps destress PPS- no matter how long it takes for them to become part of the community

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 12:56 pm

hermiefanatic wrote:i have noticed a similar thing. when i add a new crab to my existing colo0ny, the new crab generally will gnore the others, and vice versa.
after a week or s, then do i seem them interacting.

A week sounds short compared to mine, is this a long established colony?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 12:56 pm

Tetracolor wrote:When I add new crabs, the older crabs all come out and have a party with the new ones...

you must be doing something right

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 2:12 pm

I think a lot has to do with species interactions as well as the individual crabs themselves. For example, I brought King Louie (E) and Colonel Hathi (E) home at the same time (hence them both having Jungle Book names) and King Louie went right up to the other crabs who accepted him immediately while Colonel Hathi didn't want anything to do with them. To this day, King Louie will join the E pile and cuddle, but Colonel Hathi is still kind of a loner. Further more, I find that Pain and Panic (both PPs) like to cuddle and be around each other, but dislike the company of the E's. Pain has even kicked them out of "HIS" cocohut... Literally... Soccer ball style. :roll:

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 5:14 pm

That's really interesting, it seems like there are a lot of factors. I wonder if the PP's are lower in the pecking order since there are less of them.
If I could figure out how to word it, I would be interested in a poll that asks if a new crab introduced to an established colony destresses less or maybe not even digging down at all. But I guess it would have to say of the same species and not including molting.
Oh well,
maybe this is why they are so mysterious in many ways :roll:

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 5:44 pm

You know, I thought they were for the longest time before I saw that Pain was actually pretty high up there. I think for the most part, they just don't bother with the little guys, but that they are more than willing to display that they are higher up in the pecking order if need be. And most of that is just if an E tries to get into the prized cocohut. Anywhere else is fine, but that beloved cocohut is just off limits. lol

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 5:53 pm

that is too funny

if you set three huts next to each other
would he run around in circles trying to defend them all

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 10:07 pm

lol Defend cocohuts, or come out in the open where mommy can see him... Hm... Tough choices for my crabby baby. lol He's the epitome of nocturnal. I actually kind of like it when an E tries for the hut so that I can catch a glimpse of him. lol

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 2:42 am

Ha ha that's really cute. My first baby Krabbie he was a tiny and very nice little crab but when i got other ones bigger than him, that was i different story he was king of the castle :]

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun May 11, 2008 4:26 pm

my crab sparkey is the smallest crab but he was gotten first and then i got a bigger one and so did my brother and shortly after sparkey was the leader and still is to this day when he walks around the cage they are always following in his footsteps and when he eats they eat when he drinks they drink when he rest they rest when he hides they hide when he climbs they climb

its really fun to watch them act that way

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun May 11, 2008 4:49 pm

My PPs act like "buddies" with other crabs, but no colony behavior. However, my ruggies act MUCH differently. The ruggies seem to have unique social roles and take cues off what others in the group are doing.

For example, I have a couple that seem to "find food" and a couple that sit in the middle of the tank and are "on gaurd"

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun May 11, 2008 4:56 pm

I think we got a bit off topic, but I have what I consider to be an established colony. I started with 4 from the pet store with above average condition and later 3 more. So as not to make this boring, I got the rest of them from the Crabbage on two separate occasions. Now I have 15 in a 29g. Why I consider this to be an established colony is that multiple crabs were introduced each time and I have not had a death since I started the tank.

Most of the crabs are over one year with me, and I've never had a problem with any of them.

We're up to 15 crabs and since things are going so smoothly with them, I won't be adding or removing any, unless a serious problem arises.