HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Omg these things are growing like weeds! I just bought a bunch of new shells but I feel like they could even use a few more now! Very gratifying to see but also ever so slightly worrying since all 5 of my 'kids' are already on the large size! They're gonna need their own room pretty soon!

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I don't quite have the answer to your question, but have a related one for you in return. Where do you find is best to buy new shells? I'm a new crabber but think I need some new ones for my crab.

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I have ordered from Naples Sea Shells. It's getting so expensive now that Sonny and Cher are getting so big!

To answer how often, I order when I know I am going to be in the US so shipping isn't so horrible!

ROSIEonFIRE wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 15, 2019 12:43 am

Omg these things are growing like weeds! I just bought a bunch of new shells but I feel like they could even use a few more now! Very gratifying to see but also ever so slightly worrying since all 5 of my 'kids' are already on the large size! They're gonna need their own room pretty soon!

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Just wait until they want to borrow your car and want to wear only name brand shells!

We seem to go in spurts with buying shells. Usually every 2-3 months. The last time we purchased shells was about a month ago at Crab Con. I forget what store was there but they had incredible deals (about 60-70% of the retail price) on shells plus no shipping. We were in desperate need of 1-1/4 to 1-3/8 openings so we loaded up on them and some larger ones too.

Our crabs range from babies in shells with 1/8 or 3/16" openings to Piggy that is in about a 1-1/2" opening. We have a great selection from maybe 3/8 to 1-1/8 openings so they get the crab me down shells from the bigger ones. The babies we will need to search for more sizes and varieties but small shells are at least cheap.

I know someone mentioned before about using the Buy, Sell, Trade area to exchange shells and other items with members. I know a lot of people accidentally order wrong sizes all the time. It would be a good way to try a recoup your loss with someone that did the same thing. I personally wouldn't trade with someone that is a new member with a handful of posts. Someone that has been on here for several months or years I would trust more.

We usually bought ("bought" as we rehome our crabs soon) shells in bulk - if we found some that were somewhat bigger up to what we would expect to fit in about one year, we bought them.
Sources: aquarium shops (we have a nice tiny aquarium shop near our current place, selling green turbo as tank decoration), sometimes shops at the beach/ during vacations, also shops selling minerals often have shells (but take care that the shells are not dyed/painted, sometimes they call them "polished" and indeed it's gloss).

We had never ordered shells online so far, as we were never in need - as a collector of shells and minerals/stones I hang out enough in those stores to also pick up enough for the crabs.

I've bought shells three times in 10 years. If you get a selection of different sizes there's no need to keep buying more.

Wherever I go, I take a look to see if they sell shells, mainly because shipping from Naples is super expensive! It makes up about once a month to every other month that I buy shells. Most recently, it's to look for lighter shells.

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Every time I go to the beach I end up going to the shell shop. I'm a shell hoarder for my personal colony

GotButterflies wrote:I'm a shell hoarder for my personal colony

Ah okay that's what it's called. I realized I was one too when I picked d up some more this week.

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Scarletfire wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 06, 2019 10:13 pm

Ah okay that's what it's called. I realized I was one too when I picked d up some more this week.

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What if they bury 3/4 of the shells you so graciously put in there for them? Will they use those? Or do I need to keep supplying them with more shells to bury?

Hermiesguardian wrote:What if they bury 3/4 of the shells you so graciously put in there for them? Will they use those? Or do I need to keep supplying them with more shells to bury?

This is a really great question that im always wondering!

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