Painted Shells

Painted shells are a very controversial topic among hermit crab owners. I strongly suggest you DO NOT use painted shells, but if you want to use painted shells that is your choice. I feel that the main reason people associate painted shell with dead hermit crabs is because the people who use painted shells do not meet the care level hermit crabs require. I have had a Coenobita compressus hermit crab live in a painted shell for about two years now he is perfectly healthy. So I don't think it is painted shells killing the crabs it is the care or the methods used by retailers to force crabs into the painted shells. When a retailer obtains a hermit crab from the wild they don't come in painted shells, they come in natural wild shells. So retailers feel the need to force hermit crabs into these painted shells to market to impulse buyers as easy to care for disposable pets when that is not the case. The methods used to get crabs out of their natural shells are inhumane and have a high mortality rate. Here is a short video that shows some hermit crabs being put into painted shells; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYZZb-gkUIE this video however doesn't show the crabs being forced out. The torture that these crabs makes me pity them even more then the other crabs that have to deal with the mistreatment in pet stores. So I am drawn; buy the crabs in regular shells or the ones in painted shells they are both being taken from the wild and no matter which one I chose or which one dies the pet stores are going to replace it. One pet peeve of mine is when people get so worked up about their hatred of painted shells they tell people who have no natural shells available for sale to get painted and scratch the paint off. This bothers me because the paint can't get fully scraped off and it is a real waste of time cause natural shells are quite cheap for purchase online. As you can see in the picture below after hours of scratching this shell still has little bits of paint all over it.