I realise that this may be a strange or stupid question...

[Shaye]

I have been avidly researching different types of hermit crab setups and am wondering why almost every other picture or description has a basket of shells instead of them laying on the same level so that the crabs can see all of them and pick through them. Is there some reason? Are they able to dig through the layers and examine all their choices? Thank you for your time since I could find no explanation online.

[KellyCrabbieLove]

Yes, they can dig through them and move them around. Plus it is common to go in and rotate what it offered every so often.

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[Crabinski]

As @KellyCrabbieLove said, the crabs have no problem sorting through the shell shop baskets/bowls; even my little crab, Charles Paris, can turn over and flip even the largest shells to investigate those below. Containered shell shops are really for the convenience of we crab parents. When the shells are placed on the substrate, they're quickly buried as the crabs go about their daily tunneling thus requiring digging on our part to find them all again. Some crabbers keep the shells on the substrate but set it up so that the shells stay in a discreet area, i.e., cordoned off by pieces of cholla. Before I used baskets and soap dishes as shell shops, I had a two-tiered corner shelf unit in the 29g and used the lower level to spread out the shells on a piece of craft mesh. Bottom line is there is no difference in how often my crabs explore the shell shops (a few times every day), laid out flat or containered.

[LucasBinx]

Somewhere under my substrate is a nice 1 1/2 opening jade turbo I got for my jumbo in Hawaii...I wish I had put it in the shell shop. I definitely learned my lesson and now I don't keep shells on the substrate. My thought was that it would be too big to be buried. Oh, how I was wrong because it disappeared quickly!

I could technically go looking for it, but haven't done it yet

[jasonmom]

I agree with the person above. When my shells end up on the substrate, they are quickly under the sand. I try to keep them on the corner shelves, but have to move them back up as every few days about 1/2 of them have been thrown off. I think it kinda makes the crabs think new shells are showing up.

[JamieL]

When I had mine on the sand they got loaded with sand or buried pretty quick. I now have a small kitchen shelf lined with coconut fiber and all the shells are up there. The water dishes are under it, so usually if they knock one off it lands in the bowl. But for the most part they stay up there and the shells stay clean which is nice. I spray the shells down every few days, I like to think they like that