[dbirdsong]

I have 5 blue legged hermits in my tank. They have been in there from 2 to 5 months. When I got Them they were litte. Their shells were about 1\2 inch long. The first one I put in are four to five times that size now. Yesterday the largest crab decided to roll a smaller one over on its back. It looks like it's trying to pule the smaller one out of its shell. At 2:00 today it had not moved or gave up the effort. It is a lot bigger and could not want its shell. It can't even get his claw in the shell of the smeller one. Well I put the big bully in timeout on the other side of the tank. This is the strange part. As soon as I put the small one back in the tank, two different crabs chased it down and flipped it over and started the same behavior. It looked like they were fighting over it. Last time I saw it the big one had made its way back across the tank and ran the smaller two away. It's still trying to pull it out of its shell.

[carym]

I would say that is normal behavior, I can't say why but I see this all the time in my tank. Everyone will be getting along fine and all of a sudden there are 3-4 bodies laying around where the larger ones pulled out the smaller ones. Then they will be fine for a couple of months and then again they start over again. Not unless it is mating gone wrong or something, like I said I can't explain it but it is normal (normal in a reef tank) yeah thats a good one.

[rlcline76]

Hermits are little sh*ts. This is quite normal.

[NATIVEVAMAN]

If you havnt already done so you need to put some some larger empty shells in the tank.Either snail shells or hermit shells it makes no difference.They grow out of there shells rather quickly.They will kill to get a larger shell.