HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hey fellow crabbers,
I read the article pertaining to species of crabs and their shell preferences and found the results to be very interesting. I own 7 PP's and found that my crabs wear a variety of shell types. 3 of them wear the turbo shell types and I read that those are PP's favorite shell type and unfortunately I only have 3 turbo shells in my tank as of now. Most of my other shells are not the turbo type. However, I just ordered 15-20 turbo shells on shell supply.com and am looking forward to seeing my crab's reactions to the different shells. Please comment below what type of crabs you have and what shells they prefer. Feel free to post pics!!

My crabs are super fond of Mexican and tapestry turbos.



Sent from my LGMS550 using Tapatalk

Whichever kind of Turbo is available Striped, tapestry, green, Mexican, carved

I have three crabs and have been at this for ~3 months. I've been providing mainly mexican turbos, with a few larger green turbos, one gold turbo, and a few D-shape opening shells, just in case one of my PPs wanted to get a bit crazy. My smallest crab came in a trochus shell (strawberry top) that was super huge on him, and refused to change until after his first molt with me. He was missing his big pincher leg and one of his legs had a bent tip from a surface molt/molt attack (I think), so I don't blame him for keeping the shell that probably saved his life for a while. After the molt, he chose a cittarium pica shell, and then a week later a mexican turbo.

My middle-sized crab came in a something similar to a trochus, and wouldn't change for a while either. Then she changed into a few mexican turbos. She was missing a leg and part of another one when I got her, and is now down for a molt.

My largest (small/medium) crab has been changing shells since I got her. She was the only one I got who'd been forced into a shell (it was a laquered moon snail shell). Within two hours of getting her home, she had changed into a green turbo. She's worn that same shell twice, 5-7 different mexican turbos, at least one pica shell (previously modified by hermit crabs), and my one and only gold turbo (for two days). She's now in a larger size mexican turbo than she really needs, I can see a gel leg, and I think she's got a molt coming up. She got so excited about the new shells once, she changed right in front of me. I'm still waiting for that to happen again. I stood super still and didn't move a muscle so she wouldn't get spooked. Most of the shells I buy now are with her in mind. I like to see her get all excited about them. I figure the other crabs can wear them when they get big enough.

Thanks for the input guys c:

Mexican turbos or polished tapestry turbos... when they do decide to change out of their original shells. I have one that hauls about the heaviest, toothy-apertured-iest, almost ladder hornshell-esque monster of a house. But I expect that to change.

My guys like the magpies

Sent from my Z833 using Tapatalk

I have a large shell selection but my PPs generally prefer green turbos and tapestry turbos though I have one crab that is very fond of Babylonias and goes back n forth between them and turbos. And surprisingly I have a lot of Mexican turbos in different sizes and only one of my crabs wore one for a few days.

Happyhermiehome wrote:I have a large shell selection but my PPs generally prefer green turbos and tapestry turbos though I have one crab that is very fond of Babylonias and goes back n forth between them and turbos. And surprisingly I have a lot of Mexican turbos in different sizes and only one of my crabs wore one for a few days.

Oh yeah and I have one lil girl in a big old heavy crusty pica/magpie that she's very attached to. I suspect it's her "from the wild shell" she's down molting rn. will be interesting to see if she changes when she comes up.

Almost all of the PPs I've owned over the years have preferred turbos, especially tapestry and mexican turbos. I've only had a few crabs that would qualify as XL or jumbo, and they eventually switched to jade turbos.

I can't really say about E favs. They've all sort of picked random shells when they chose to finally change, mostly D shaped. There didn't seem to be one clear cut fav like there so clearly is with my PPs and some of the shells they chose were so well worn that I'm not entirely sure what kind they were.

How's the survey coming along? What are the results?