impulse Cowrie ID

[Mike4284m]

I never impulse buy but slipped today. Anybody have any idea what kind of cowrie this is? Perhaps a young tiger or some other form of a tiger?

I have a 37g with 3"-4" of sand but no rockwork. This is a macroalgae/FO tank. I assume this guy wouldn't do too well here and I'll have to find him a new home.

 

[venwu225]

arabian cowrie

 

[gloo]

I was warned that my cowrie would eventually eat softies in my tank... They were right... My black cowrie (Cyprea caputserpentis is what some experts ID-ed it as ) cleaned the tank of all algae, starting with what little algae there was on the LR, it went after the algae on the skimmer and HOB refugium out-flow plates ( it was basically out of water for 3-6 hrs a night doing this ), it ate all the green q-tip macro algae ( Neomeris annulata ) I had. Now its moved on to eating green star polyps, a couple of zoa polyps, and even took bites from a foot of xenia colony. Havn't shown an interest in mushrooms at all, in fact it ate cleanly around some of the ball-tipped anemones that were right next to the q-tip algae.

 

[gloo]

What kind of macro do you have in your tank? It makes a mess out of the grape caulerpa, but seems to not feed on the blade grass macro or cheato. My cowrie also likes the thick parts of coralline algae as well. Also ate them pineapple sponges.

The guys that ID-ed my cowrie requested a photo with the mantle out, as well as the top down of the shell.

 

[Mike4284m]

I actually gave him up to someone with a larger tank. He was definately too big to do well in my system long term. Thanks for the info.

 

[j_chu]

is that arabian cowrie in the picture reef safe guys? i have one and i like to keep it in the tank to control algae, but i also have zoos, rics and hard corals. thanks a bunch!