HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Sooooo... it's one of those days. Hermit crab splurging, getting the tank it order. New substrate, bubblers, and of course shells. The bag was $10 at Walmart. Will be worth it if I have some usable ones. They are fairly nice sized, though, around 1" openings.

Some of these (the snail ones) I'm certain of, but I was wondering if any of the others are unusable?? There seem to be a lot of potential E shells in here, but I'm not an expert. I (think) some are gold mouth turbos which apparently sent preferred???

Also, big question: there are some damaged ones, are they usable? One (the large striped one, row 3 column 1) has a thing hole on the top point. Another (two to the right of it) has a tiny whole in the bottom side-ish and a couple have jagged ends on the openings. Could I sand these down, leave it, or have to dump it???

Tell me if I need better pictures, I can take better ones later.

Thanks!

Looks like you got some nice turbos! I think I see a Florida king conch, I have one of those but no crab has tried it. The opening looks fine but I think the interior may be too squished. I think the whale eyes are preferred by Es, my PPs never go for them so I finally took them out. Three of my guys came to me in shells with D shaped openings so they are usable, but all eventually switched to round openings (Junior persisted the longest, keeping his conch till a couple of weeks after his molt).

I don't know anything about repairing holes, but I have used a dremel and a nail file to smooth jagged openings. Probably better than they're used to in the wild but I can't bear the thought of scratching their little abs!

If you want more turbos and are near a Joann's, they sell a net bag of shells that is mostly green turbos. Mine had openings all on the small side, but my biggest guy is in a 7/8" so I'm good. I used a coupon and got a deal, like $3 per bag. I'll see if I can link my old post.


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Link to old post: http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ph ... 4&t=110059

Thanks for the response!! Yeah, I already have the Joann's shell bag, it's great! I got this one because the shells are huge, (turns out I don't need them that big!!), the Joann's ones are great but pretty limited in size. In the end I'll not need these big ones for a while, though.
Thanks for taking time to respond!!

Unless you have E's, most of these shells probably won't be used by your crabs at all. The turbos look like goldmouth turbos, and I have never once had a crab stay in one for any length of time. They just don't seem to care for them. I don't know if it is the weight or the shape, but PP's just aren't digging the gold.

Tapestry turbos, virgin (pink and white) murex, magpie, turbo fluctuosos, turbo bruneus (green), jade turbos, and even japanese land fairy shells can all be good choices for PP's.

If you have E's, babylon shells, nerites, turbos (we have an E in a turbo despite dozens of oval shaped shells offered), or whales eye shells seem to be popular.

In case you haven't been linked or seen this already, here is a link to the shell guide.

viewtopic.php?f=24&t=92552

Thanks for the advice! I now only have two Es, but the one who switched chose a turbo over some D shells too, so go figure! Crabs are weird.
And thanks for the link; I completely forgot about that!! whoops....

JulesRolyCrab wrote: Crabs are weird.

The crabber's motto!

They sure are. At least you have lots of good E shells now!

Yeah! He switch three times yesterday only to go back into his turbo. All three shells seemed tiny on him (I doubt he can retract fully into any of them!) Is this an E shell preference thing or an E thing or a crab thing...? I think I have some fairly good-fitting shells in there!