cowrie

[barracuda]

I'm thinking of buying a cowrie from a friend of mine, but the ting is really big, and I'm not sure what they eat or if it'll go around my tank knocking over all the LR. Does anyone have any advice on these monster snails?

 

[ezy33]

Mine came with the reef tank. When i found him on the same coral for the third time I moved him to the refugium.

'In the wild, it can be found under rocks or resting on soft corals during the day, foraging for food mostly at night. The Tiger Cowrie prefers a rock aquarium with hiding places. While small, it will eat some algae and scavenge for scraps, but as an adult, it will eat some anemones, sponges, and soft corals." taken from live aquaria.com.

 

[Fluff]

Cowrie's are neat snails. I have a snake skin one in my reef and used to have a tiger cowrie in a FO tank. The tigers get huge, (pretty sure this is what you were referring to) about the size of your fist and yep, you don't want one of those in a reef system. Fish only is great. They will clean up any left overs. I've read that they should be offered meaty foods but mine never ate anything I offered it. Never had a problem with it moving rocks around. I don't know what size tank you have but I wouldn't put one in a smaller tank just due to it's size and it needing enough room to move around unhindered. A cool thing about cowries is they have a mantle that they pull up to protect their shells. This helps keep the shell shiny and smooth. It's also an indication of it's mood. A happy calm cowrie will carry it's mantle up. If it gets stressed, unhappy from something irritating it or feels threatened, it lowers the mantle to expose the shell.