hermit crabs mating/fighting??

[sunryze]

weirdest thing ive seen yet ,, :? today one tiny redleg hermit crab was being molested by 2 bigger crabs ,first i thought they were trying to kill it and separated them to either end of the tank but in a hurry they found it again , the smaller of the 2 quit as the bigger took over , i thought it was trying to steal its shell but it was much to small for it , so i assumed their mating??? it kept trying to run away but it locked down on it , now a few hours later all is peaceful,, so what do you think :? there's plenty of other empty shells in there , and they all take turns changing into them , this big bully is actually wearing a shell that looks to large for him its hysterical ,

 

[seaham358]

IMO they were trying to take over the shell, they don't care or know it wont fit till they try it on for size. I've seen them kill snials just to get there shell that wono't fit.

 

[sunryze]

thanks , as a matter of fact it did kill one of my snails,