OK so I have 3 Ecuadorian crabs along with 7 Purple Pinchers.. I have gotten all my pps to change into natural shells.. Unfortunatly my eccies are being stubborn and wont change from there chipped up shells they came in any ideas.. I have purchased tons of different shells for them and no luck... I have D openings, Oval openings, round openings.. Dont know what else to do..
owell was hoping there might have been some trick like say soaking it in coconut milk or spraying it with veggie oil ect. type wifes tales lol.. (and no I havent tried either of those it was just off the wall examples)
You can try leaveing some with salt water in them. I heard you can soak the shells in conditiond or stress coat water but not for sure.
Whenever I clean my shells I always use the salt water mixture because they do seem to like that. As far as the E's changing, they are a fickle bunch, and as long as they like the shell they're in, there's no enticing them out of it. Some will wear a shell two sizes too small for over a year and still not change. It's part of their "mystique". Actually it's part of their well deserved reputation for being "onery"! :biglaugh:
Oh yes, I have a couple goofy-looking E's with more than half of their boddies out of their shells, even though there are plenty other shells they can choose! My other Less-Picky crabs seem to like it when the shells are rinsed in salt water (Like Jelly said!) but also when there's no sand in the shells! Thats why I keep my shells in a plastic shower caddy...maybe that might help :dontknow:
I thought byou weren't supoosed to use a conditioner with a stress coat in it, it gunks up there gills? I just figured I would mentioned this when I read something about leaving a stress coating water in a shell, I thought you just want to remove the heavy metals & chlorines
