Measuring Shells

Rachel · Post by **Rachel** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 10:29 am

When ya'll measure a shell's opening, are you measuring the actual hole in the shell in it's entirety? Or just the portion of the hole that would actually inhabit the crab...the part of the hole that it's butt would move into?Ack! What a mess! Does that make any sense?? I ask because a lot of shells will taper in, so the amount of available space is a bit smaller than the actual complete opening. I've been ordering a lot of shells off Ebay lately, and some are not the size that I was expecting.So, which way to ya'll do it??

hermit_king · Post by **hermit_king** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 12:43 pm

When I measure shells, I just measure the opening. I do not go into depth or anything. Its not really anything to worry about much, after all, hermit crabs will choose the shell they want, not you. Then again, you do have to buy them the shells. Anyways, I heard a long time ago, that the opening of a shell should be as big as the hermit crabs big pincher. Crabbing can be very confusing, thats what LHC is for . Its too bad I don't come here more often, like I used to.

Bubu · Post by **Bubu** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 2:01 pm

I measure the opening, the wide way. Then I go out and buy like mabye 2 or 3 slightly smaller shells then the one he's in, and then many more slightly to half an inch or more bigger.

Nicole · Post by **Nicole** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 4:17 pm

Rachel, I have had the same problem with some eBay shells. Really. There have been many that are too small for me to use; I am wondering if the sellers are measuring the entire shell width instead of just the opening. I only measure the actual width of the opening; that isn't working out so good for me sometimes, unless I am ordering off an actual shell website.

Rachel · Post by **Rachel** » Wed Mar 16, 2005 7:52 am

Thanks. It seems that when I first started this whole crabbing thing a couple years ago, buying shells was so much easier. Now that crabbing has became so "popular" it's like everyone has their own way of measuring shells so you never know for sure what the heck you're going to get. I just wish there was a universal way of doing it. I was trying to get some sort of census out of this.I know how to measure a shell but say a turbo, for instance, may have a opening of an inch, but only about 3/4 of that is livable...know what I mean?Anyhoo...I'll just keep crossing my fingers and hope for the best when I'm ordering shells...

kuplakrabs · Post by **kuplakrabs** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 11:01 am

I've had the same problem with shells from ebay as well. I usually email the seller and ask them to measure the opening from the inside wall to the inside wall across horizontally. This has usually worked. But there are still those that measure the entire opening from the outside to the outside...

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 10:15 am

I hear ya Rachel. I wish there was a universal way of measuring shells. We measure all of our shells inside wall to inside wall across horizontily. We reference this way of measuring shells with our size matters link. I think it may help if we picture some of the slot shells or D shaped opening shells to show how we measure them as well. (I'll work on that.) Now that I have crabs I've noticed things like its hard to measure the opening of a shell with a big crab hanging out of it. Constantly people tell me I need something a little bigger than a golf ball, close to tennis ball size, or...a little bigger than a marble, nickle, quarter...the list goes on. Anyway, we do our best to fit hermies properly. It seems the opening needs to be 1/8" to 1/4" bigger than the big pincher so there is room for that outer left leg.