Did you know that hermit crabs can "talk"? I caught this amazing audio in my tank last night as a new guy and a freshly molted and grumpy PP exchanged words.

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I have never had aggression problems in my crabitat. I keep it big and full of things to explore and places to hide. I also keep it far under capacity, with around 25 crabs in the 90 gallon terrarium. One day, I found one of my cutest, sweetest, and shyest crabs, a viola whom I adopted from a friend, locked onto another crab's shell. I pried her off and moved her into the corner and him up to the moss pit.

Within a few seconds she was charging across the tank, snapping her big pincher and chirping. This is even more significant when you find out that I've never been able to coax this crab out of her shell in my presence up until this moment. Over the next few days I seperated them 4 or 5 more times. It made no sense until it dawned on me, she wanted the apple murex that Fancy (the other crab) was in.

Now, I have plenty of other shells, apple murex's among them but she had fixated on this one. It was at this time, after much coaxing and sweet talking, that I got fancy to emerge from his shell. To my horror, I saw that she had clipped the tips off of each of his legs and taken a nip out of his BP. That was it! I packed him off to stay with a friend in her crabitat and recover.

I didn't punish her (how would you punish a crab?) because she was exhibiting a natural behavior. She had a very strong need for a different shell coupled with the irritability that comes with an impending molt. None of my offerings were to her liking. Instead I got on the computer and ordered some shells. I got the one inch apple murex from The Crabbage Patch first and it went right into the tank.

Yesterday morning I woke up to find this running around my tank. It took me awhile to figure out what had happened.

Yep, that's an extremely freshly molted PP, still pale, moved into an apple murex. But! NOT the apple murex from the Crabbage Patch. This was much too small and a little darker.

I looked around the tank and didn't fine the apple murex from the crabbage patch. I deduced, hopefully, that Miss Viola Pinchy Pants had moved into it.



and she had! Hopefully this will end some of the aggression issues. Honestly, the little PP that moved into her old shell is in a bit of a spot simply because it is in an apple murex and that is what she likes. However, I'm hoping that happiness with her new shell will keep her from attacking anyone else for awhile. Oh, and she's gone back to her usual hidey-crab behavior.

Update: To date (late september) the Viola has not exhibited that sort of aggression again.

Hermit Crabs are fascinating to watch. They dig tunnels, climb to perilous heights, make pigs of themselves in the food dish. But do they sleep? Many people refer to hermit crabs as nocturnal and it is true that often the activity level in your tank will increase at night.

Because of this you might be able to catch a napping crabby during the day. Most of the time hermit crabs sneak off to the caves and hidey spots to sleep where they feel relatively secure. The bolder and more comfortable crabs, though, will often sleep right out in the open.


So, how can you tell if a crab is sleeping? Well, they don't have pillows or make little snoring sounds. So you basically have to go based on their appearance. A sleeping crab is very relaxed. The eyes and antennae are pointed down and they are usually part way out of their shell. A sleeping crab will often not move or withdraw when you walk by the tank and they may stay in that one spot for hours.

Below are some pictures of my crabs sleeping. It’s my opinion that crabs that will sleep out in the open are pretty secure and relaxed happy crabs. So check your tank today, see if you can catch any nappers!