A Crab's Revenge

The saga continues with our favorite pets...ok our only pets.
About 2 months ago one of the crabs was molting and was buried down in the sand doing his thing. (From past posts you will remember that molting is a traumatic time for a crab and they are very vulnerable and weak until their new skin hardens.) Well the smaller punk crab took advantage of the situation and stole the poor molting crabs shell leaving him weak and defenseless without a shell. While it was very cool seeing the crabs full body I quickly added some shells to the tank for him to hide in. Well, no permanent damage done.

Fast forward 2 months. The punk crab has been buried down molting for the last 5 weeks. He finally emerges yesterday and I pull all the crabs out to clean the tank. As I pick them all up and check them out I notice that the punk crab who just finished molting is missing his big claw! His leg is all mutilated and black and he has no big claw anymore.

All I can figure is that the big crab decided to get his revenge on the punk for stealing his shell while he was down and out and made him pay by ripping off the punk's claw while he was weak and defenseless molting. Who knew that the world of crabs could be so violent and full of drama? I wonder if the big crab did it himself or if he ordered a hit on the other crab. Next thing you know there will be horse heads in my tank!