hermit crabs killing one another...

so ive found 2 dead of the 5 blue hermits that i have in the tank currently. they're usually found dead and another blue hermit within an inch of it....

today i witnessed one blue attacking another blue.

is this common? am i going to continue to have little blue dead hermits?

 

Do you have enough extra shells?

 

Do you have extra shells in the tank?
Hermits will kill eachother for their snazzy shells, so it helps to keep extra shells around to help prevent that.

 

well there are some extras now lol

 

tsk tsk! IF they don't have shells to move into they will kill eachother. Buy a bunch of extras from your LFS (they are very cheap) and throw them in there.

 

I have had the same problem as bje and mostly with blue hermit crabs. I have tons of extra shells for them to move into but I think they enjoy killing my snails and red legged ones instead.

 

I have heard that blue legged are the more aggressive type of hermit.

 

I love my blue leg orange turbo hybrids!

 

They need tons of shells to switch in and out of. We had a hermit about the size of a golf ball that would literally ride our turbo snails up the glass until they tipped over, eat the snail and steal there shell. 5 minutes later he would be back in his old shell. They seem to need plently of shells to explore even if they dont plan on staying in them.

 

weird crustacean!