Offering New Shells

amwilliams · Post by **amwilliams** » Wed Oct 12, 2016 8:27 am

Do you guys trade out the shells that are offered to your hermies very often? I feel like mine have all touched each shell available a few times and goodness knows they've changed them one bazillion times. If they are still all appropriate size, do you just keep the same ones until the crabs molt? Or do you just toss in some new ones every once in awhile?

CrabMater · Post by **CrabMater** » Wed Oct 12, 2016 9:44 am

Hi, I have a 2 Qt Mason jar full of shells. Every week-10 days or so I'll rotate the shells in my crabitat. The hermies love shell swaping. Its a social event with lots of feelers all over and good natured pushing. Gives everybody something to do.

bugboy2 · Post by **bugboy2** » Wed Oct 12, 2016 12:39 pm

At our place we have shell swap Sunday every week!

hermitharbor · Post by **hermitharbor** » Wed Oct 12, 2016 12:53 pm

I have two shower caddies, one with big shells and one with smaller shells. So I have a ton. I just keep them all in there since I have crabs of varying sizes, but I will remove them every so often and clean them all (my guys like to use the shops as their bathroom

).

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Crabnado · Post by **Crabnado** » Tue Jan 31, 2017 11:41 am

My crabs are fashionistas. They like to have a variety of shells to play with. I have two quart containers full of them but only keep about 6-10 in the tank at a time so they always seem 'new' when I swap them out every couple of weeks. I have some flat shells and broken bits too that I occasionally swap out. They like to use the flat ones to make stepping stones into the water dishes and the broken bits give them something to bury.

LadyJinglyJones · Post by **LadyJinglyJones** » Tue Jan 31, 2017 12:27 pm

Sometimes I'll swap out shells I haven't seen them exhibit much interest in, them add them again later... but there are a few staple shells that my guys are generally switching between & and if I've seen a crab wear a shell at any point, even just for a little bit, I never remove it.

Hermit-Yote · Post by **Hermit-Yote** » Tue Feb 07, 2017 2:39 am

CrabMater wrote:Hi, I have a 2 Qt Mason jar full of shells. Every week-10 days or so I'll rotate the shells in my crabitat. The hermies love shell swaping. Its a social event with lots of feelers all over and good natured pushing. Gives everybody something to do.

Never thought of that! I'll have to try it out!

HCA: Hermit Crab Association