HCA: Hermit Crab Association

A little back story:

Scooby is my shell swapper, he loves changing shells. After I got him he changed to a better shell, a brown one. Then he changed to a green one, I guess that wasn't good so he went back to the brown one.

2 days ago, Daphne finally changed from her arrival shell to another brown shell, just like Scooby's. I feel Scooby didnt like this because he changed his shell to another brown one, similar but not the same. What did Daphne did last night? You guess it, she changed to a shell similar to the one Scooby has, to the point I mistake her for Scooby.

So I started looking around to see what else were they up to last night and noticed the 2 shells, they had on are no where to be found lol. I have no idea where they are, and who hid them.

Lol I have heard of people saying that their crabs burry the shells.

Yeah, mine bury shells sometimes. I'm not sure if they purposefully bury them, or if when they are digging, shells just get covered up with substrate.
Do you have lots of shells for them to choose from? They could be swapping so much because they aren't happy with what they have on - or of course they could be doing it because crabs are funny people.

Most of my shells are in the shell shop because of this, however recently I've been putting a few back on the substrate again. They sure do love to bury things!

curlysister wrote: ↑

Thu May 30, 2019 9:08 am

Yeah, mine bury shells sometimes. I'm not sure if they purposefully bury them, or if when they are digging, shells just get covered up with substrate.
Do you have lots of shells for them to choose from? They could be swapping so much because they aren't happy with what they have on - or of course they could be doing it because crabs are funny people.

Mine are in a particular part, all together and theres no digging around them, so I feel a little one did this on purpose lol. I have about 3 shells per crab, I do feel I need to get some more, and going to wait until I get home to measure them and ask for help here, cause even with a digital caliper I am still at a loss on shells sizes/how to measure etc.
I ordered before I even got them but some of them are way too big.

I just moved and dug up my 55 gal tank and there were at least 10 shells buried. I don't know if it was intentional or if they just got buried when they dug.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

My Es did constantly. They would drag them into their tunnels never to be seen again. The PPs didnt seem to be so deliberate, but if they were on the ground they would get buried accidentally.

When I had ants last week, I had to replace the substrate. I found so many shells underground! Some were rather deep so I think it’s deliberate.

teachincrabbie wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 11, 2019 11:03 pm

When I had ants last week, I had to replace the substrate. I found so many shells underground! Some were rather deep so I think it’s deliberate.

Ungrateful creatures. And we just keep buying them new shells.