Chloe is being stalked.....

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Crabby Appleton
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Chloe is being stalked.....

Post by Crabby Appleton »

Chloe just came up from molting about a week ago. She has been with her tank mates for 2 years so nothing new there. All of a sudden Romeo and Joon have been grabbing Chloe and putting her on her back. She pulls in tight and just sits there. I haven't seen any fighting but I can't help but wonder what the heck is going on. Any ideas? This morning they had her on her back, and she was inside her shell chirping like crazy. I picked her up and relocated her elsewhere in the tank. When I came home from work, they had her again. Suggestions?
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ladybug15057
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Re: Chloe is being stalked.....

Post by ladybug15057 »

It could be since she came up from a molt, she smells like a meal to them. There is an odor associated with molting that some hermies find irresistible. My suggestion would be to dip her in the fresh water pond a couple times rinsing her off to rinse off the molt odor and so she smells like the others to cut back on the behavior you are seeing. Unless you bath your hermies, bath them altogether so they smell the same and wash off the molt odor.
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Wai
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Re: Chloe is being stalked.....

Post by Wai »

Only rinse her if she has fully hardened. If she hasn't, then isolate her. Keep an eye on her in case the others are trying to steal her shell.
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Crabby Appleton
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Re: Chloe is being stalked.....

Post by Crabby Appleton »

She is fully hardened, and I did the bath thing with them. I even freshened the tank so they had some investigating to do that had nothing to do with Chloe. Now to see if it works.
Crabby Appleton
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Re: Chloe is being stalked.....

Post by Crabby Appleton »

It didn't help. I had to separate them. Now what?
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Wai
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Re: Chloe is being stalked.....

Post by Wai »

If you have some time at home, keep them together and watch from a distance what happens. If a shell fight occurs, by all means separate them. Otherwise, if they just want to get a little 'friendly' with each other, you don't need to do anything.
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ladybug15057
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Re: Chloe is being stalked.....

Post by ladybug15057 »

Do you have a larger neutral Tupperware type container or such that you can dip them in the same fresh water, put them into the neutral container, and observe them for 30 min to an hour? Meanwhile, while keeping an eye on them stir up their substrate and put the items back in the tank. Then observe them again once put back into the tank.

Edited to add:
Only put them in the tank together if you notice no aggressive behavior in the neutral container. It is normal for them to antenna fence, and a bit of pincher shoving for 'alpha' crab reasons, but large pincher in the air open sticking and flipping of another upside down can be considered aggressive behavior.
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Crabby Appleton
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Re: Chloe is being stalked.....

Post by Crabby Appleton »

What I have observed when they are together is, Joon will grab on the back of chloe's shell and hang on. Romeo however, will actually investigate the opening with is large pincer. When he does this Chloe just chirps like mad. I'll try the neutral territory thing. It just seems so odd, they've been together for years and molted several times, I just don't get what the conflict is this time. I'm going to order a couple of new shells, like Chloe's to see if that helps.
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ladybug15057
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Re: Chloe is being stalked.....

Post by ladybug15057 »

A few more shells may do the trick too. One maybe a little un-comfy in their shell.
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Re: Chloe is being stalked.....

Post by Wai »

Keep Chloe away from the other two for at least a week and distract Joon and Romeo with new shells. A shell fight might erupt at anytime if Chloe isn't kept away from them.
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