Cowrie Snails
- Thread starter smkkib
- Start date
He is exactly look like the picture i attached, i guess its Cypraea (Monetaria) caputophidii
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Are they eating Coraline algae too?
pagojoe
Team RC
These show up in the hobby fairly often, not so much because they are the best choice but because they are easy to collect. At least they are small enough that they won't starve quickly. In the wild, this species lives in the rough water at the reef edge, or on rocky shores with lots of wave action, where the water is super-aerated. But, they mostly feed at low tide at night, when they may be totally exposed on the rocks. It would be hard to duplicate this habitat in a reef tank, but it might be OK anyway, particularly if you have quite a bit of surface area for it to graze on.
Cheers,
Don
Cheers,
Don
Calappidae
Harlequin Shrimp
Don't they need colder water?
I'm pretty sure I have the same cowrie as you (Hawaiian snakehead). Mine is about 1.5" long and I've had it for about 2 months now but I rarely see it during the day. He grazes on my rocks and ate a decent amount of algae when I first got it but has slowed down a bit. They're really cool to see at night because they bring their mantel through the shell. Freaked me out at first.
pagojoe
Team RC
Hehee, actually they bring the mantle out OVER the shell, but yes, it looks cool. C. (M.) caputserpentis is a lot more common in the hobby than C. caputophidii, which has historically been considered a form or subspecies of C. caputserpentis (I don't think I could tell the difference, and I've seen thousands of both). Since not much of the snail stock in the fish stores come from Hawaii or the Marquesas, chances are pretty good it's the former.
Cheers,
Don
Cheers,
Don
