How common are 2"+ shells?

[crazylilme]

Both of my PPs are currently in 2" (opening) shells and are right on that line of not fitting in them anymore. Finding shells larger than 2" opening has turned out to be far more difficult than I imagined. I've searched all the websites I can find, but the best I can find are shells that *may* be larger than 2" and are $15 - $150.

Is this reasonable? Do crabs not generally use larger than 2" shells?

[CrabMater]

Sadly the bigger the opening the harder they are to find (for me) Im already hoarding them. I found a seller on eBay who had 2.5" and he said he had bigger. I took a screen shot of his ebay seller info. I have no contact w this person except I bought a bunch of shells from him and they were clean and reasonably priced.
http://imgur.com/a/2joMX


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[crazylilme]

Sadly the bigger the opening the harder they are to find (for me) Im already hoarding them. I found a seller on eBay who had 2.5" and he said he had bigger. I took a screen shot of his ebay seller info. I have no contact w this person except I bought a bunch of shells from him and they were clean and reasonably priced.
http://imgur.com/a/2joMX


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Thanks! I'll give that seller a look!

[daws409]

I'll have to check them out as well! I too need larger shells. Thanks for the link CrabMater

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[wodesorel]

For that size you're pretty much into sellers who cater to crafters and decorators and have to go by overall length of shell. Turbo openings are half the length of the entire shell
, so you'd need to buy 4 or 5 inch shells. Even in bulk they are $10+.

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[EPAS]

Has anyone checked the local saltwater fish store?
My local saltwater fish store will sell them. Once a year they throw out shells.
If I'm in the area, I will pick some up and clean them.

[wodesorel]

That large though? Normally the stores stick with smaller snails and hermits since they can cause major damage in a tank at a larger size.

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[EPAS]

I will have to measure the shells I picked up today.
I'll post size tomorrow.

[crazylilme]

Has anyone checked the local saltwater fish store?
My local saltwater fish store will sell them. Once a year they throw out shells.
If I'm in the area, I will pick some up and clean them.

There's 1 store nearby that sells salt and freshwater fish, but he didn't carry anything remotely crab related (that's why we went in there). Otherwise, we only have the big box chain stores around here and they're useless.

[EPAS]

The local saltwater fish store threw out two shells with a 2 1/8 opening. The shells are long and damaged, but I want them for a coffee table beach theme insert.

[Hermias_mom]

My local saltwater aquarium shop only uses mexican turbo snails to clean the tanks, and some marine blue leg hermits which are smaller. I haven't seen any shells from him over 1.25" opening. I think there's a limit to how big that particular variety of snails gets, at least in the tank conditions he's offering.

[wodesorel]

That's about where Fluctuosus (Mexican Turbos) max out. You will almost never see them for sale at 1.25 even.

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[Freckles24]

(Not helpful but) I would love to see some pictures of them! I can't wait for mine to get that big


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[DarthKrab]

That large though? Normally the stores stick with smaller snails and hermits since they can cause major damage in a tank at a larger size.

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What kind of damage can they do at bigger sizes and what could you do to possibly prevent it? Just curious because I would love to see my little guys get as big as they can haha

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[wodesorel]

I was talking about marine hermits and marine snails, since the discussion had swung to getting discarded shells from the local saltwater fish seller. Those can get pretty massive, and they will often eat anything they can catch - fish or coral. One large marine hermit can cost a a keeper a lot of $$$ in stock!