HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Does anyone have a lead on buying coconut shell huts? My local stores only seem to have them sporadically and then only 1-2 with hideous paint jobs.

Im not sure if this is what you mean, but this is from Petsmart, I believe less than $4. Just a plain plastic coconut hut, but I always see them there.

Or get a coconut at the grocery store, they're about $1.50-$3.00 near me. You get TWO cocohuts and a bunch of coconut meat for your crabs as well!

Mr. Crabby Pants wrote:Or get a coconut at the grocery store, they're about $1.50-$3.00 near me. You get TWO cocohuts and a bunch of coconut meat for your crabs as well!

How do you manage to get them into the cocohut shape? Mine always seem to split into many little pieces..


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It is hard to explain, but there should be a video on YouTube.


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purpleperson wrote:

Mr. Crabby Pants wrote:Or get a coconut at the grocery store, they're about $1.50-$3.00 near me. You get TWO cocohuts and a bunch of coconut meat for your crabs as well!

How do you manage to get them into the cocohut shape? Mine always seem to split into many little pieces..


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I've wanted to try this as well.

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Thanks for the responses, y'all. Upon further research, I found several places that sell coconut shells cut in half (with or without husks) in bulk. One place will sell me a ton (literally a ton!) of halves for $350.00!! That's a few more than what I need!

Other places sell them by the lot (usually 200) for about $50.00. I'm seriously thinking about buying a lot and then cutting out the door hole and re-selling.

mool wrote:Thanks for the responses, y'all. Upon further research, I found several places that sell coconut shells cut in half (with or without husks) in bulk. One place will sell me a ton (literally a ton!) of halves for $350.00!! That's a few more than what I need!

Other places sell them by the lot (usually 200) for about $50.00. I'm seriously thinking about buying a lot and then cutting out the door hole and re-selling.

That's not a bad idea! Spend 50 and make a bit of profit after a little bit of work! I like it

Knowing my learning curve, it would probably take about 150 of them just to get 1 with a nice door!

I actually ordered a few (not 200!) from a place I found online that sells them for about $1.00 each--minus the door. They offer them with and without the husks and also polished. They also have turbo shells--so I had to put in an order. We shall see!

I just used a small saw to cut the coconut in half after draining it.

Here are a couple of videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lG_Unjif78g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9ETN771hh4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKsJOAZUS20

Mr. Crabby Pants wrote:I just used a small saw to cut the coconut in half after draining it.

Here are a couple of videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lG_Unjif78g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9ETN771hh4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKsJOAZUS20

Watching you use that hole cutter in the third video was very instense.. lolol
If that's you anyway. Either way it was intense.

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Nah, wasn't me.

Like I said, I use a small hand saw to cut around the middle of the coconut, scoop out the meat, and then cut up from the bottom on each half a few inches on each side of where the door will go. Once I have the sides of the doorway cut to roughly the same length the shell usually breaks off pretty cleanly wit just a slight push.

I was just trying to find videos that showed a few different techniques depending on tools available and skill level.