Marine hermit crabs love to swtich shells and typically do so more requently than their land-dwelling cousins.
I have a pair of jumbo marine hermit crabs that switch shells daily--every single day! It is exciting to wake up and see what outfit they've chosen to wear for the day!
Marine hermit crabs seem to be particularly fexible, squeezing into shells with slot-like aperatures or toting around large, cumbersome conch shells. If a shell is not comfortable for his eye stalks, I have witnessed a marine hermit crab repeatedly tapping the overhead of his shell onto hard rocks and other shells to break away bits of his shell so that his eye stalks could poke out comfortably. How inventive!
Because there are so many species of marine hermit crabs available to the aquarist today, the best indicator for your marine hermit crab's shell preference is the shell he was wearing when you first adopted him.
I have a pair of jumbo marine hermit crabs that switch shells daily--every single day! It is exciting to wake up and see what outfit they've chosen to wear for the day!
Marine hermit crabs seem to be particularly fexible, squeezing into shells with slot-like aperatures or toting around large, cumbersome conch shells. If a shell is not comfortable for his eye stalks, I have witnessed a marine hermit crab repeatedly tapping the overhead of his shell onto hard rocks and other shells to break away bits of his shell so that his eye stalks could poke out comfortably. How inventive!
Because there are so many species of marine hermit crabs available to the aquarist today, the best indicator for your marine hermit crab's shell preference is the shell he was wearing when you first adopted him.
