Blue Leg Hermit Crab Tango

DAK35 · May 19, 2022

Hello,

New to the saltwater aquarium industry. Recently purchased 5 blue leg hermit crabs. Tonight, they were front and center of the tank and appeard to be fighting. I have attached the picture and was hoping to get some feedback from someone more educated and familiar with them than i am. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks

blaxsun · May 20, 2022

Maybe try supplementally feeding them, ie; wrap a small piece of seaweed on a flat rock 2-3x weekly. There's probably not enough for them to scavenge yet.

DaJMasta · May 20, 2022

They're a bit ornery, and they climb on whatever they come across, so that's pretty common. Could be for food, could be for housing (trying to get a bigger shell), could be just because they ran into each other so it was time for a throwdown.

While I wouldn't worry about it, making sure there are a few free shells and some regular food in the tank will take care of most potential problems.

DAK35 · May 20, 2022

Thanks guys! Theve been in the tank about 2 weeks and had just added two clowns to the tank and started the tank on frozen thawed mix food. There are several extra shells in various sizes available. Ill definitely try some seaweed extras. Thank you much!

Sharkbait19 · May 20, 2022

Regular occurrence.
Hermits basically spend all day looking for shells and food. They will routinely fight each other but it’s almost always harmless. A minute later they are both on their merry ways. I wouldn’t be worried.

rmorris_14 · May 20, 2022

Make sure you have some spare larger shells in the tank, in hopes to minimize them trying to murder each other for shell envy. In the end this didn't matter for me, but it could for you

Wyatt57 · Sep 16, 2022

So today I looked in tank and I said wow one of the hermit crabs is out of her shell.... Well half a hermit crab is out of her shell.... Well I got one less hermit crab I guess but I got one more extra shell.