new and loving it but having issues

[crabmomma]

Hi I Am New To Crabs Got Them On A Whim For My Two Small Children (2 1/2, And 3, Alomst 4) Thought It Was A Good Idea --better than The Dead Bettle They Played With All day. Anyway It Has Been A Couple Of Months Now And Just Went Though My First Molt But Now We Are Having Issues With Shell Fights. Even Now As I Write This I Just Had To Stop To Get Sheala Off Of Jeff How Long Do I Keep Them Separated? Why Wont Sheala Leave Jeff Alone ?

[HERMEZ]

OK you dont need to stop what may appear to be shell fights (climbing and hanging on each other is natural) BUT when they start rocking a crab back n forth it may be a shell fight- the only way you can difuse that is to provide the right shells and the right sizes and lots of them.
What on earth do you mean the kids played with a dead beetle- you lost me

[crabmomma]

ha ha ha the dead beetle --- they found a harmless little black beetle in the house and wanted to keep as a "pet" and play with they even named it. I gave them a cup to keep it in and well being young they didn't know and the poor little beatle died. my kids are still so young they were sure it was just sleeping. the next day while out shopping we came across the crabs and my little girl just fell in love right away. thats when i decided that the crabs would be better than a dead bettle.
I am pretty sure that it is shell fights b/c jeff just molted and moved into a new shell, sheala jumped right into jeff's old shell tried it out for a "spin" and with in moments went back to her old shell. I thought all was fine, then the next morning when i was looking in on them, jeff was upside down and sheala was on top of him and being very agressive (she always is) I went in and moved her. A little bit later i walked by and noticed it happening again. only this time what i thought was jeff , was just an empty shell. Poor little jeff jumped out and must had to run "naked" across the tank b/c i found him by another shell on the other side. He seemed confused and stresses so i took him out with few other shells that i thought he would like. I put him in bowl. put towl over it and let him pick the shell he wanted. after awhile i put him back in the tank and he got comfortable in "his" corner. Later, yet again shella was tring to push and move jeff. The funny thing is that she only does it when i leave the room or I turn around to talk to my husband or something. I put her in iso last night so i didnt have to worry. I just don't trust sheala.

[silver616]

I would try offering more shells to them to prevent the rivalry. Like was stated in the previous post, not everytime they are climbing on each other are they "fighting". I don't worry too much about it when my crabs do that unless there is a significant size difference or it seems more "violent" than usual.

[krackersmom2]

Offer Shela some of the same type and size shells that Jeff is in. I have one little crab that robbed another crab of his shell just after he molted. Sometimes they have a bit of an odor after they molt and it attracts the other crabs. Also, what size crabitat do you have? 10 gallons is the minimum for small crabs....Sometimes the amount of territory and availability of housing can become and issue.

[Hildegarde]

It's sometimes a bit difficult to tell the difference between normal behavior and aggressive behavior. My husband kept talking about how many crabs fights he was seeing. He would swear to see a fight several times each day while he was watching them. I asked him to show me a fight when it was actually happening. He did. I would call it normal crab behavior: antennae action and crawling over another crab because they don't understand the concept of walking around something.

But if a crab is really aggressive, ISO is probably the best. When Sheala has had enough time in the 'naughty spot", I would bathe them all together. I could be wrong, but I believe some crabbers put them back in a certain order. The attacked crag-Jeff-goes in the tank first. Then the others and lastly Sheala. I guess it puts Sheala a little down in the pecking order.

Good luck!!

[krackersmom2]

I agree with putting the "attacker" in ISO. Hildegarde, how long would you suggest she put the "meanie" in time out? I once took my aggressive crabby away for a few hours and all seemed fine after that.

[Hildegarde]

It's really hard to gauge the time. From experience, I would say at least a 24 hour day, maybe two. Then I would suggest putting him back in at a time when you can pretty much watch them or at least be around frequently to check on the action.

At times like this, you are the boss and you are there to make sure some snot-nosed little creature doesn't decimate your population.

And you can tell Shela that Hilde said that's it, I won't tolerate any more of this behavior.


(gee. I even scare myself. Let us know what happens)