Super aggressive hermie

[hcombs]

Okay everyone- I am a relatively new hermit crab owner. I've had my crabs for about a month now! Unfortunately, I am having some serious problems. I have 3 crabbies, Jose (the largest), Pablo (medium size), and Pearl (teeny tiny!) (even when I say largest, all my crabs are still really small. Jose likes a shell that has a 5/8 opening) Pearl has been buried for a while now destressing since I brought them home! I check on her daily from the bottom of the tank. Not sure what she's doing down there but she seems to like it so I leave her alone! Pablo and Jose are where I am having my problems. I have had Jose ISO'd for about 4 or 5 days now because he wants to attack Pablo for some reason!! My ISO is a small critter carrier that fits inside the main tank because I am a college student and can't afford to set up a separate ISO tank at the moment. I feel so bad keeping Jose isolated because I can tell he desperately wants out into the main tank. He recently fit himself with a new shell that he seems to like a lot so I decided to try and re introduce him to the main tank. As soon as i placed him in the tank, he BOLTED in Pablo's direction. I watched carefully to see what would happen. Pablo tried to go in the opposite direction but Jose is bigger than he is and started attacking him. I immediately broke up the fight because I didn't want Pablo to get hurt. Back into the ISO went Jose! Two days later, I thought Jose might have cooled down a bit and I decided to try again. Unfortunately, He chased after Pablo again within minutes of being in the tank. Of course I have Jose back in the ISO again. I really wish I knew why he wants to attack Pablo so badly.. None of my crabs have molted recently, I have at least 2 shells per crab and Jose has a choice of almost 4 his size! My tank conditions are almost always correct with minor fluctuations. The tank is 10 gallons with about 4 inches of substrate, fresh and salt water and 2 different food options. I've tried bathing each of them but it hasn't had any effect on Jose's attitude towards Pablo. Setting up another tank is going to be really rough on my wallet, so I want to make sure I've tried absolutely EVERYTHING I can to make this work between the two of them before I consider that. Any and all suggestions are helpful and appreciated.

[Bender]

Just some thoughts and ideas, not an expert so bear with me and correct me if I'm off!

Can you make the tank less 'open' so they don't see each other as quickly? In my tank there's different levels, and different things so there's not a lot of clear lines of sight. I've read with aggressive fish this helps keep them from attacking since they don't see each other as much.

Another thing that might work is to rotate who is in the iso - put one in the main tank, one in the iso, then the next day switch. Maybe if Jose can explore the tank and not find Pablo, he'll settle down a bit? Not sure, we've had to do that with the cats when we got the new one, our first cat was not happy and still isn't always thrilled. She goes in the mudroom at night, so the other cat can roam without worry and it seems to have settled things a bit. With dogs same thing if they're fighting, having each one in the same space at different times and smelling the other one seems to help calm things down.


Or get some plexi glass cut with a 'door' in it so that Jose can't get through but the other two can and split it that way - maybe that would work???

[kuza]

have you tried giving them a proper crab bath yet?

[aussieJJDude]

what Bender said is a really good idea, i works
i will tell you what happen to my fish
it was a year ago and one of my fish (15cm) was chasing another fish that was smaller (4cm). i divided the tank with a stream of bubbles (the little one liked to swim though it, other one didn't) the little one could go though the bubbles and into the bigger ones "territory" but he knew that the bigger one didn't like the bubbles, so if the bigger one harassed him, he would just swim though the bubbles. they eventually became friends.

[Rocky]

When you say two food options, what do you mean exactly?
Hermies need a very wide variety of food, check out this thread: http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ph ... &start=150 You can see that people offer entirely different meals every night or every other night, but every meal should have calcium, protien and some fresh fruits and veggies. What have you given them for protien? Jose might be trying to eat Pablo if he's not getting enough protien
Another possibility might be that he's crabby, literally. They go through ALOT of trauma to get to us, it's honestly shocking to me that cases like this aren't more common. You should try keeping him isolated until he molts again, molting will often help them get over things that happened to them, and sometimes they have complete personality changes when they molt (some people say shy crabs become friendly, vice versa) and try to gut load him with lots of different types of protien. Seafood, poultry, cow, bugs, the works
Hopefully he will calm down if he molts and I hope someone can shed some more light on this for you if I'm mistaken!

[CrabbyMom33]

I would first increase your food options. Hermit crabs require variety. They will generally not eat the same foods 2 days in a row and often don't want to repeat any given option for several days. Also, provide as much protein as you can. Sometimes if a crab needs protein they will look to their tank mate to get it if they don't have other options. I would keep them separated while you are adding more food, especially protein to allow Jose to get his fill. The kritter keeper in the main tank is a perfectly fine ISO arrangement for the number and size of crabs that you have. Once Jose has had about a week to fill up on additional food I'd try to reintroduce them. Before doing so I would try bathing them both - declorinated water at the temp of their tank. That makes them both smell "neutral". Let us know how it goes.

[hcombs]

Thank you everyone! All of your suggestions sound good to me. I will definitely try to get some more protein for them because right now the majority of the food I have for them is Fruit, veggies, and calcium supplements. I am going to keep him in isolation for now and offer him some more protein. After that I'll try putting a barrier in my tank to keep them apart. I really appreciate all the suggestions! I'm sure one of them is bound to have an impact

[kuza]

Try the bath first, he may have a molt smell on him.

[wodesorel]

Try the bath first, he may have a molt smell on him.

That was going to be my first suggestion as well! Sometimes when they don't smell the same or if they're still carrying a molting odor one will be attacked. A quick, warm freshwater (dechlored) bath for the both of them might just stop whatever is happening. If not, then definately look at their diet as the aggressor may just be really hungry for seafood (proteins).