3D Printing Community to help make shells for Hermies

[mk32]

http://www.shareable.net/blog/3d-printi ... ng-species

This could be good.

[CrabbyJo]

It could, as long as they stick to creating them for domestic use to reduce the need to harvest shells from the wild. And we need to just stop harvesting shells, I doubt seriously that it's a huge market for hermit crab shells. More are harvested for crafting than crabbing I'm sure.

I also am concerned about the ingredients used to make these plastic shells, if there are any toxins that will be leeched and absorbed by the crabs. I don't really trust any plastics. Look at the toxins that leech into our foods and water because we insist on microwaving and freezing in plastic. Not only that, one informal study was done wherein a group of people were fed foods that had never touched plastic (packaging, etc) for a period of time. The levels of certain plastics chemicals were tested in those folks at the start, and when the study was done (I believe it was only three days) the levels of those chemicals had dropped by over 60%. That tells you just how much is absorbed by our foods from the packaging they come in.

[ladybug15057]

I totally agree with CrabbyJo, and ocean/sea salt is an abrasive. What would the salt do to the shell, and would any toxins then be able to leech into the hermies body?