HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I have two hermit crabs and have had them for about six months. The shells are starting to look a little small on them, and I'm wondering where I can get new ones. I ordered some on Amazon, but they were way to big. I'm just wondering where you guys have had the best experience getting shells (My hermies are around medium sized).

Naples is my favorite online place to get shells.

http://naplesseashellcompany.com/hermit ... hells.html

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Someone here guided me to Richard’s Seashells for some beautiful carved shells and I love them! There are lots of different kinds and sizes. Shipping was quick too!

https://www.richardsseashells.com/mobile-ordering-page-

Hope the link works! This should pull up long list of types of shells he offers. I would check out the “Turbos” and also the “Carved” (where I found mine). Just be sure to double check measurements!




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Thanks, I will check these out!

I just thought I'd report my experience as it develops...I placed an order at Richard's Seashells (deltonaseashells.com, apparently an alias to richardsseashells.com), for five Turbo shells (various types/sizes). That was late on Monday June 28, and just today I received an email that they have shipped. So that's a full week before even getting it shipped! I did not expect rushed service but I frankly expected them to get it shipped within a couple days. Just a word to the wise so you can plan a wiiide berth around any summer travel plans. Hopefully it reflects care and attention in addressing my request (I included a note to please avoid shells with identical openings, since it is for one hermit crab). It says priority mail should take 2 to 6 days. I will report further when it arrives...

crabocado wrote:I just thought I'd report my experience as it develops...I placed an order at Richard's Seashells (deltonaseashells.com, apparently an alias to richardsseashells.com), for five Turbo shells (various types/sizes). That was late on Monday June 28, and just today I received an email that they have shipped. So that's a full week before even getting it shipped! I did not expect rushed service but I frankly expected them to get it shipped within a couple days. Just a word to the wise so you can plan a wiiide berth around any summer travel plans. Hopefully it reflects care and attention in addressing my request (I included a note to please avoid shells with identical openings, since it is for one hermit crab). It says priority mail should take 2 to 6 days. I will report further when it arrives...

Just remember, many places are experiencing a shortage of workers right now. It's pretty bad in my area.

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My order from Richard's arrived 4 days after they were shipped, so, that's 11 days total (counting the order day as Tuesday, since I submitted it Monday night). Not too bad, after all.

Her current favorite shell for the past year-ish (an unpolished Turbo) has about 1-1/8" opening, but is clearly too small. I also measured other shells she's used in the not too distant past, which had openings like 1-3/8, 1-1/8, 1-5/8. So I was looking for one with about 1-1/4" to 1-1/2" opening, possibly larger. Looked over the graphs on the "shell length and opening project" [sic] elsewhere on these forums. Seemed I needed probably 2.5-3" shells (Turbos), but I was afraid they might all be too small so I decided to diversify and bought 3 in that range, but 2 in the 3-3.5" range. Richard's gives opening sizes for just a few categories of shells, so I had to do some guesstimating.

Here's what I ordered, the specs Richard's web page gave, and the measurements I took of them after they arrived. I marked with "OK" those that ended up within the range the web page listed.

pearl jade turbo small - 1.5" opening, 2.5" long - was supposed to be 2.5-3", hole 1.25" --> opening too large
pearl jade turbo medium - 1-10/16" opening, 3-1/16" long - was supposed to be 3-3.5" --> OK
jade turbo small - 1-10/16" opening, 3-1/4" long - green - was supposed to be 2.5-3" --> shell too large
jade turbo medium - 1-7/8" opening, 3-1/2" long - was supposed to be 3-3.5" --> OK
sarmaticus turbo small - 1-7/16" opening, 2-5/8" long - was supposed to be 2.5-3" --> OK

Since I included a Note in my order, "shells are for a single hermit crab, trying to provide a range of sizes, so please avoid two shells of identical opening", that may have encouraged them to shoot for a wider range of openings.

Also, although the technique of measuring is documented on various web pages, it's left a bit ambiguous in some respects. I measured perhaps rather close to the very end (outlet) of the opening. Others might choose to measure the more "internal" width (where it's narrower, but is more "relevant" for the hermit crab). There really aren't any super clear guidelines about the exact measuring technique.

The sarmaticus clearly isn't a good shape (coils are too tight for the abdomen, compared to jade turbos), that's something I should have researched more beforehand.

The pearled shells seem maybe too "thin" - they are quite translucent and look potentially fragile because of the aggressive polishing/pearling process.

The only shell I've seen her check out thoroughly so far, was the "jade turbo small", but she rejected it.

I'm not complaining or saying I'm displeased, just reporting the details in case this is helpful to myself or others in the future. I made this order partly in the spirit of experiment. It's nice to see that some fairly large shells are not that hard or expensive to obtain. Hopefully as she grows, she might use some of these.

In my early browsing of the Naples site, it seemed they were out of stock on most of what I needed so that's why I paid more attention to Richards'. But possibly Naples has what I need, & I may try them next time. It just takes careful study...

Yes, you may need those larger opening shells later; she may also decide to change only after having had access to them for some time, to "think them over." Since she does not have any competition for shells, she can wait all she wants and not have to worry about losing out on a shell because she doesn't take it right now.

On the polished turbos, they are considerably lighter (weight-wise) than the unpolished turbos of the same opening size, so a crab that feels very safe in their environment, or a weaker crab, may prefer them. Since your crab has nightly wanderings that increase risk, but also keep her stronger than more confined crabs, she may continue to prefer unpolished shells. You are also correct that they are likely more fragile, so if she does choose them, she may be more at risk of worse injury from a broken shell if she takes a fall while she is out; so it's all an experiment at this point.

One problem you are encountering is that, as you increase opening size, the size of the overall shell jumps up A LOT with just a tiny increase in opening size (it's about the geometry of the spiral shell). So a crab is really having to make quite a complex calculation regarding when to move up in opening size, because it means taking on a LOT more weight as you get to those larger sizes, for each tiny increment of shell opening increase. And of course for the people involved, it often means a lot more cost, because suddenly you are buying a far larger shell overall, and those are both rarer to come to market, and more in demand for both the hermit crab market and just for people to buy because they are pretty.

Interesting! It's not immediately obvious to me why shell size should increase at an ever-increasing rate, as shell opening increases. I will have to google that for some math education...

But here's exciting news, she did try on the small pearl jade turbo for a while (1.5" opening). And soon after, she had moved into the T. sarmaticus of all things! After I had decided it was not a good shell shape for crabs! And she's been in it for hours. it's gorgeous... I hope she fancies it as much as I do.

https://www.northfloridashells.com/ - put Turbo into the search box. I got the 30+ assorted Turbo for 10.95 I also bought some of the Indian Mix and PHILIPPINE Mix and got useable shells out of both mixes that are sold by the gallon or by the lb.