HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I'm probably going to get blasted for this by someone saying go by the chart well I read through it and way confusing for me...i think I've read on a post to fig out the next shell is to measure the big claw is this correct...

I’m kind of going through the same thing. My shells are completely different sized but a lot of the openings are measuring the same. I really want to get this right. I tend to overthink things and make them harder than they are. I think I’m over-reading the shell guide.


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Crabs are weird in general and even weirder when it comes to choosing shells. When I first started crabbing I was worried about trying to measure each crab for shells and over thought the process too.

The way I would start is by measuring across the opening of your smallest and largest crabs shell. It doesn't need to be exact. Once you know the size, say 3/4" opening you can order a variety of shell in 1/8" steps larger. So several 7/8" openings, maybe a few 1" too would be a good start. Crabs will go into way oversized shells than what you would expect, sometimes they stay the same or go smaller. We already purchased around 15 shells and the crabs fought over 2 or 3 different shells even though they were all sized similar.

As long as you do not have large size differences in your crabs once the larger ones upgrade the smaller guys will move into those shells.

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I just looked over the shell chart to see if I hopefully ordered the right size. The chart looks pretty confusing at first but isn't too bad once it's broken down. I had to reread wolfnipplechips explanation a few times to understand it.

Here is what I took from the explanations of how it works.
Right of Graph: Shell Length
Lower Graph: Shell Opening
Red dots: Actual Measurements of shells (Length & Width)
Black Solid Line: Average Length and Opening (since it is an average and no two shells are alike this will vary)
Blue Dash Lines: Shells with a specific Shell Opening Size will average between the these two lines.
Green Dash Lines: Based on data collected this is narrowing down the variance based on the information collected.

The green dash curves more based on the actual measurements and how much variance was noted with similar size and opening.

Here's the quick crash course.
Find the shell type you want to purchase.
Decide what size opening you want.
Draw a straight line up to intersect the Solid Black Solid Line.
From that point go straight across to the Shell Length

Where the Solid Black Line intersects the Opening and Width is what was averaged.

Lets do one, Green Turbo shells.
Say you want a Green Turbo with a 1" opening
Measure straight up to the black line from the 1" opening mark
Measure straight across to Shell Length (about a quarter of the way between 2" and 2 1/2". Half way between them would be a 2 1/4" so this intersection meets at about 2 1/8")
A 2 1/8" Turbo should have an 1" opening
The blue line tells you that an 1" opening will be in a shell length between 1 3/4"- 2 1/2" 95% of the time

A 1 1/4" Green Turbo opening should be on an average 2 1/2" length shell.
3/4" Opening should be on an average 1 3/4" length shell

If everyone's brain is hurting from that explanation here is the link to what I am referring to.

http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ph ... 24&t=84333

Awesome! I’ve bought a few that were way too big but I’m starting to get the hang of it now. This should make it easier to get shells without the opening size. My biggest 2 seem to like just about the same sizes, one is a little bigger than the other. I thought I had picked crabs with different sizes but it’s really just up to them on what they want and I need to remember that. I think just about all of them have really surprised me in their choices of shells. They all prefer the turbos, I haven’t had any go into the different types of snail shells. I took them out, wasn’t sure if I should just leave them in there. I am boiling them all now in salt water before they go in, and removing the painted ones now that I have so many more for them to pick. I have 2 painted left, one on Bob and Crabina took Squirts old shell. If one changes, others normally follow. Except Salty, she’s quite the fashionista, I never know what she’s going to be in when I see her next.


♡ Rod ♡ Salty ♡ Bob ♡ Squirt ♡ Crabina ♡
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