HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I see how some people place all their extra shells in a bowl or a "shell shop" in their tanks and some people, just lay them out flat on the sand/ee. Which is best? Flat or stacked?
If you have shells stacked in a bowl on top of each other can the crabs really dig out the ones on the bottom? I have always laid them out flat because I was worried they wouldn't be able to find the shell they needed.
How do you place your shells?

I have thought the same thing about having them in a pile. I always would put them on the sand. Every week or two I had to pick them all up to clean them. At least the ones they didn't bury.

I just recently built shelves out of egg crate with a lip. I put shells and food on them. It's been working good keeping shells clean and I have seen some crabs change. I don't have the it filled with shells though. There is enough room for a few crabs to easily spin and check the shells out. I think the easier a crab can inspect a shell the better the chances of them choosing a new shell.

I tried a shell shop to free up floor space but it seemed only the shells on top we're being moved around, so I moved them back to the ground and litter them around the water dishes which also allows them easier access to the pools which is neat. The biggest downside of course is that some shells get buried and while I'm able to unbary some, I know they still have at least 5 buried at any given time as I don't want to dig too far.

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Always thought the same, so have never tested more than 1 layer of shells myself. I leave some scattered on the substrate and a layer in the shop/mosspit, trying to group similar sizes together.

I keep them contained in a loose mesh, that way there isn't an issue with a bunch of shells burying other shells, but I also don't have to worry about my much smaller shells being buried in the substrate.

I have a dish for them, but I lay some out on the sand too. They dont seem to have too much trouble digging in the dish. I put a shower caddy with suction cups up as well and dipped the shells in salt water and put my largest who just molted and loves his babylonian up there to see if he would take a turbo, but he's stubborn. Other times when I lay out a bunch of shells around a crab the change easily.

I have a shell shop placed on my second level and i’ve only noticed 1 crab out of my 7 go up there and pick a shell. I placed all their old shells they changed out of and least preferred shells in the shop. The rest are scattered all around the crabitat but I’m currently trying to think of a new way to store them without stacking problems and such. I have like 55 shells lol so it’s a lot!


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I put my shells in a basket up in the topper.

I place all my shells around their water pools. I have plastic mesh attached to the pools as well but the shells act as a step to climb on and also as a popular place to commune.
I tried a "shell shop" for a few weeks but none of my crabs ever changed shells.


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I tend to scatter them upside down on the surface of my substrate