Blue leg hermits - all piled together?

[Ky_acc]

Hi everyone - anyone seen this type of behavior before from hermits?

I bought about 30 blue leg hermits last week and they all ended up congregating in the corners and forming a big pile

I’m not sure why they’d be doing this but I was hoping they’d start getting to work on some algae on the rockwork. Anyone have any thoughts?

 

[exnisstech]

Mine do that but usually on a coral. I swear my hermits spend more time trying to murder each other than they do eating algae.

 

[Dragen Fiend]

Nope mine want nothing to do with each other. They might get a couple inches near each other. But no touching lol.

 

[littlefoxx]

Hi everyone - anyone seen this type of behavior before from hermits?

I bought about 30 blue leg hermits last week and they all ended up congregating in the corners and forming a big pile

I’m not sure why they’d be doing this but I was hoping they’d start getting to work on some algae on the rockwork. Anyone have any thoughts?

Looks like they are either eating or theres a shell they all want lol

 

[VintageReefer]

Are they:
Fighting for shells ?
Or
cleaning each other shells?

 

[Ky_acc]

Yea I’m not sure - I separated them yesterday and spreads them across the rockwork, then I come down this morning and they are all in a pile again….

 

[Solo McReefer]

Mine do that but usually on a coral. I swear my hermits spend more time trying to murder each other than they do eating algae.

No kidding

And then one sees a soft hermit Crabs cadaver floating around in the current

"Ah, serves you right you lazy boy. You only had one job, but noooo you wanted to play gladiator"

 

[TokenReefer]

Hermits creep me out

 

[exnisstech]

Hermits creep me out

That was cool. I was rooting for the snail, gave it's all at the end. Not that it matters but it's freshwater. I saw the heckelii at the 1:31 mark. I used to keep cichlids.

 

[TokenReefer]

I know it! Poor guy. Brackish maybe? Thought that was a giant horse conch but idk

 

[exnisstech]

I know it! Poor guy. Brackish maybe? Thought that was a giant horse conch but idk

Ah very possible.

 

[legionofdoon]

They are doing a shell exchange. They will all get together when one outgrows a shell and then they will all get hand me down shells based on size. If you watch them long enough you'll see them do it. Of course you have to have spare shells usually or when one of them dies they will do it. It's actually kinda neat to watch. My daughter is the one that pointed it out. She'll watch them for hours doing it .

 

[Ky_acc]

They are doing a shell exchange. They will all get together when one outgrows a shell and then they will all get hand me down shells based on size. If you watch them long enough you'll see them do it. Of course you have to have spare shells usually or when one of them dies they will do it. It's actually kinda neat to watch. My daughter is the one that pointed it out. She'll watch them for hours doing it .

@legionofdoon thank you! That makes sense.

 

[Solo McReefer]

Are they:
Fighting for shells ?
Or
cleaning each other shells?

Fighting for shells

They will even try and kill hermits wearing the wrong size shell. And theirs fits

Very consumable part of a CUC

 

[slingfox]

Give them some spare shells. I got a bag off Amazon for this purpose.

 

[Ky_acc]

@Solo McReefer @slingfox - I threw in about 30-40 empty shells of various sizes with them when I added the group, although they are scattered across the aquarium

 

[Solo McReefer]

@Solo McReefer @slingfox - I threw in about 30-40 empty shells of various sizes with them when I added the group, although they are scattered across the aquarium

Well

That's all fine and well

Those empty shells don't have hermit crabs in them

For the other hermit crabs to fight

To get the new shell

To wit, I do not consider individual hermit crabs as long term residents in my tank

"But, Solo, that doesn't make any sense. Why would they fight, when they could just get another free shell?"

You have weird behaviors in you too, that don't make any sense. Anyone who has 'dated' an 'Amber Heard' or 'Buck Cherry' type knows this. Sometimes it's just the way we, or hermit Crabs, are made

 

[Solo McReefer]

Give them some spare shells. I got a bag off Amazon for this purpose.

Reefcleaners.org has them when you buy your hermit crabs

Like 10 for a buck

And are all about the right size for hermit crabs

I don't buy those anymore. Because I know I will have a bunch of them on the tank bottom. That used to have hermit crabs in them, soon enough