HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I know E's are notorious for their lack of shell switching but is it normal for them to keep a shell that's so small that they can only pull in as far as their eyes? That was the case with Skittles (my first E that just passed) and a couple of my new guys.

Three have kept their original shells:

-nerite-looks like it fits
-painted shark eye - a little small
-painted and terribly chipping shark eye - way too small

One I haven't seen and I think might have buried, and two others switched to tapestry shells. I have a zillion shells in there including moon snails and babylonias which are considered D shaped, right? I'd really like to tempt at least the medium size guy out of the chipping painted shell. What do your E's tend to favor that I might be able to get him?

Larger E's in my tank have chosen striped turbos and tapestry turbos. King crown shells might be another one you give a go to.

Morgan is wearing the same shell he was wearing when I purchased him/her. It is WAY too small on him. Can't even pull his eyes in. :roll:

Crown Conch??

Jenks is in a nutmeg -only 1 shell change with me

Elva is wearing a fox shell. -several shell changes with me

Last I saw Solembum he was wearing a whelk shell -several shell changes with me

Maud is also wearing the shell she had on when I got her. I'm not sure what kind it is:

maybe a very worn moon shell??

petholatus turbo
petholatus turbo
polished silver turbo
stripe turbo
cantharus melanostomus
cantharus melanostomus
thais haemastoma floridana

My medium and large Ecuadorians are in the turbos. My smalls are in the other shells. I highly recommend cantharus melanostomus to anyone with a small crab who needs a new shell. My crabs just love them. I have had purple pinchers, Ecuadorians, rugs, straws, and blueberries wear them happily.

All 4 of my E's are wearing King Crown shells. You can get them from HCP. Here's a pic:

http://www.hermitcrabpatch.com/Natural- ... 165-01.htm

Here's my E's, all wearing King Crowns:

Eazy-E:



Nicodemus:



Snoop Crabby Crab:



and Ghost Face Killah:

at least four nerites. most of my smaller Es strongly prefer nerites. every single nerite chosen is one of the black, ridged ones that get smoother and cream colored on the spiral.

my largest E is in a tapestry turbo. i've had one E change into a babylonia, but he changed back pretty quickly - they don't ever even consider babylonias. another relatively large E is in a lightning whelk which had its siphon sanded down a lot. i'm still trying to get a good selection of bigger shells for the mad crabs...

i've heard they'll take apple snail shells, but good luck on finding those. i guess you could buy a mass of apple snails from your local fish store and either wait for them to die or boil them and feed the to the crabs?

I've got five little ones in black nerites and two in zebra littorina - all seven of those shells were new ones that I got from a local pet shop that were all missing their inner spiral, so that lead to an entire night of shell swapping. (Five were all in zebra littorina to begin with, and all of those were missing their central spiral as well. The other two were wearing some sort of charcoal-grey conch shell and a raspberry colored moon shell - again, missing the middle parts of the shell.)

The largest E came in a hollowed out and cracked tonna shell - she changed into an intact rice snail shell immediately.

There's another large E that came in some sort of odd horned turbo that again was missing it's inner spiral - she changed the next day into a tapestry turbo.

And then there is a medium E that is in some sort of nutmeg or conch-like shell that's amazingly gorgeous. She refuses to move out. The shell looks like one those milk-chocolate Guylian hazelnut seashell candies!

I can't believe I forgot to add my micro/tiny Ecuadorians to my list. Here they are:

thais haemastoma
littorina zebra
littorina fasciata

Nautica Lineata
Zebra Turbo
Nutmeg Shell
White Land Snail Shell

I buy cantharus melanostomus on eBay from shell collectors.