Guide: Shells to Avoid

[MilkingMooMoo's]

I have noticed my really super beefy pp's are in magpies over green turbos and many miscellaneous banded turbos. I have one small PP that doesn't go anywhere near shells with round openings! The entire time I have had him he picks almost slot shaped shells! Weirdo! I have one pp that won't leave the land fairy snail shell at all! The rest of my pp's are all mostly in gold mouths despite the abundance of nice turbos. Oh the odd balls!

[SachOfSCP]

Well, it's official; I have weirdo crabs

I had one small PP that came in the delphin shell but he also died in it, so......
3 of my straws & 2 of my Es prefer the goldmouth turbos over anything else.
My Pps LOVE magpies; I talk to people about that all the time; they're like, "Mine won't touch them" where I have at least 5 wearing them right now & one of them has been worn by at least 4 different crabs, hh It does seem to be the bigger PPs that like them though.
I had one small PP come in a frog shell but he changed & no one else ever touched it.
The nerites, most of my Es came in them (some stayed in them for years) but they didn't like them anymore after that.
In the land snail shells pic, I've had crabs wear 6 of the shells in the pic, but I bought a lot of them for my straws & they only wore 1, one time. :roll: Though my (PP) Godzilla is wearing a rare huge brown land snail shell that he's been in over a year now.
I had a really wee PP who wore one of those long twisty shells & it was so funny because he dragged it at first & then we caught him doing upside-down pull-ups on a stick to get strong enough to carry it LMSO

This is a good guide though. One shell that 98% of my crabs haven't worn though, are the murexes! I've had 2 PPs wear one and my straw has been in one since March, but that's it. The other crabs? They nibble the spines! Another shell that hasn't gotten much interest in my tanks are the "whale eyes" (I think that's what they are called? They look like dinner rolls, he he)

[zippity]

Yup, this is pretty much a comprehensive list of every shell my crabs have rejected. Extemely helpful; thank you very much!

[Squeaky]

I've noticed lately the crabs at Petsmart are in Magpies fairly often. I guess in the wild they don't have much of a choice, but so far the two I brought home have changed - one to a turbo, the other to a D-shaped opening that most of my E's usually wear.

[Cassafrass1999]

I've noticed lately the crabs at Petsmart are in Magpies fairly often. I guess in the wild they don't have much of a choice, but so far the two I brought home have changed - one to a turbo, the other to a D-shaped opening that most of my E's usually wear.

Two of the hermit crabs I got from Petsmart came in magpies too! One also changed into a D-shaped opening...lol!

[scyllarus]

This has been more or less my experience, too. I've got one difference, though - my Es seem to love rapa shells. Maybe it's a different subspecies, since I do have a rapa bursa that looks exactly like the one pictured that no one has changed into. The shells are smaller and golden-brown with a smooth creamy white inside (no mother-of-pearl though), and they're better proportioned.
http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/alkor ... -shell.jpg
They used to love nerites, and I've kept the modified nerites in case I get teeny/small Es at some point, but whatever that rapa shell is, they seem to like it a lot.

My singular PP moved into his apple murex when he was a teeny. He's probably a large now and he's still wearing that thing.

[wolfnipplechips]

That looks more like Thais lacera.

[scyllarus]

Possibly. I got it in one of the big ten dollar Walmart packs, so I really don't know what it is exactly. They seem to work well for medium to large Es, though, so if anyone's bought a bag of shells from Walmart...

[Kat]

This has been more or less my experience, too. I've got one difference, though - my Es seem to love rapa shells. Maybe it's a different subspecies, since I do have a rapa bursa that looks exactly like the one pictured that no one has changed into. The shells are smaller and golden-brown with a smooth creamy white inside (no mother-of-pearl though), and they're better proportioned.
http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/alkor ... -shell.jpg
They used to love nerites, and I've kept the modified nerites in case I get teeny/small Es at some point, but whatever that rapa shell is, they seem to like it a lot.

My singular PP moved into his apple murex when he was a teeny. He's probably a large now and he's still wearing that thing.

I've got a straw in a bursa rapa right now too, and he seems to love it. He hasn't even given another look at other shells.

[ShellCrab]

I have one goldmouth turbo, and the crab that should fit it has not touched it. Now I know why! Thank you!

[Nate the great]

I have one goldmouth turbo, and the crab that should fit it has not touched it. Now I know why! Thank you!

I have a pp wearing a goldmouth turbo right now. He picked it from a shell shop with at least 4 other shells in his size.

[sfss99]

I have crabs with african turbos, they came in them. I thought they were average turbos so when i was measuring them, i measured there shell opening wromg and got way too big turbos for them lol