Snail ID please

Found this little guy and was wondering what kind of cowrie snail it was. I want to know if it is safe and if it is, what can I feed it if it needs to be fed.
Sorry about pic quality, taken from my Blackberry.

Thnx in advance

 

Hi Mike

moved this to the ID forum
hopefully someone may recognis this species

Steve

 

Ha, here I am. Tried to see if I could find anything on Galveston Island today with the wind blowing the water out to sea, but it was too cold and windy for comfort, and I ended up at the Houston Museum of Natural Science with the kids instead.



I'm actually a cowry collector, and have the shells of all the species but a few. I've also live-collected about 70 species, and kept about 40 species in my tanks. Consequently, if the cowry is in stealth mode, with its mantle extended, I can identify it if it's one of the species that has a distinctive mantle. Otherwise, I'll pretty much have to see at least some of the shell. This isn't one of the really distinctive ones, unfortunately. If you touch the animal on its back, it will withdraw the mantle, at least partially, and should show enough of the shell for you to get a pic suitable for ID. Your Blackberry should be ok, even if the pics aren't great. I just need to get an idea of the shape and pattern of the shell.



The mantle is unexceptional enough to be an Arabian Cowry, Cypraea (Mauritia) arabica, and since that species is sold in the aquarium trade, that may be what it is. However, some of the other species in that same genus or subgenus look very similar, as do a few that aren't closely related. It looks almost too round to be that species, but it might just be the angle of the pics you took. You can get the best pics by taking it out and photographing it in a dish of water, which is what I always suggest. If it's Cypraea arabica, it should be about 2 inches long. If it's much smaller than that, it's probably a different species.



A friend of mine kept one of these for over 20 years by feeding it wilted lettuce and clams on the halfshell. That's obviously not the natural diet, as they'll naturally feed on films and algae growing on the rocks (and glass, in an aquarium). Some people object to the fact that they may taste of other things in the tank if they are starving, which they will be if you have them in a small tank and don't attempt to feed them, since a large cowry will deplete the food supply in a small tank quickly. Personally, I consider them to be generally reef safe. If you have something in your tank and you absolutely couldn't tolerate a tiny chance that the cowry might taste of it, you'll likely want to remove it, or keep it in a separate tank. They are occasionally accused of tasting of zoanthids or some soft corals, but I've never seen this behavior in the wild, and I've never seen them associated with either.



If you can get a few pics with the mantle withdrawn, I might be able to give you a little more specific help.



Cheers,







Don

 

Nah, I don't think you spelled anything wrong. If you're talking about the cowry/cowrie argument, both spellings are generally considered correct. I only use cowry to humor the experts who insist that it's spelled that way