Do hermit crabs fight?

Colin_1122 · Jun 20, 2020

I bought three scarlet hermits a few days ago and this morning I noticed one of them had died. I have two other hermits in the tank, they were labeled as “dwarf hermits”. Could the two species have fought and that’s why one is dead?

dbowman5 · Jun 20, 2020

is it dead, or are you looking at a molt? You might have had a fight but the scarlet would have been eaten by the victor. or not. i have scarlets and blue leg hermits, and emerald crabs. unless there is absolutely nothing to munch on they will leave each other alone except to fight over shells. you did not say if one of the dwarfs, had the shell of the scarlet? the only other thing might be an unsuccessful acclimation. for whatever reason , sorry you lost an animal.

Colin_1122 · Jun 20, 2020

dbowman5 said:
is it dead, or are you looking at a molt? You might have had a fight but the scarlet would have been eaten by the victor. or not. i have scarlets and blue leg hermits, and emerald crabs. unless there is absolutely nothing to munch on they will leave each other alone except to fight over shells. you did not say if one of the dwarfs, had the shell of the scarlet? the only other thing might be an unsuccessful acclimation. for whatever reason , sorry you lost an animal.

I’m pretty sure it’s dead, the shell is empty and I don’t think it moved to a different shell. The dwarf hermit has stayed in the same shell so I guess they weren’t fighting over a shell. Maybe it just died from acclimation, thanks for your help though!