info pustulated cowrie

lets list everything we know about the pustulated cowrie, a internet search for me did very little. just some pics, 1 place i see sells them online and a post about them eating a trumpet coral. they have a very colorful shell i thik and was going to possibly get one for my bare bottom aggrisive tank. i only have a mushroom in there now wounder if he would eat at that? i would also like to know the prefered water temp, and there max size.
lets list everything we know about the pustulated cowrie

 

OK, here's about all I know: (from Full text of "Opisthobranch" )

Vol. 16 (2) : 10



OPISTHOBRANCH



February 1984



Notes from Hans Bertsch

Jenneria pustulata, the Pustulate "Cowrie."

Figure 1. Front cover photograph by David K. Mulhner.

A most distinctively-marked mollusk occurs throughout
nearly the entire length of the tropical eastern Pacific faunal
province. Although commonly called a cowrie, it is not a
true cowrie. This cypracean is a member of the family
Ovulidae Fleming, 1822, subfamily Eocypraeinae Schilder,
1927. It has been found from the northern extremes of the
Gulf of California to Ecuador. Often, it is in or near masses
of stony corals, its prey item.

The shell of Jenneria pustulata (Lightfoot, 1786) is
gray-brown (figure 1). The dorsal surface of the adult is
covered with brilliant orange pustules, each of which is
surrounded basally by a dark chocolate colored ring. The
mantle of the living animal has a salt-and-pepper appear-
ance, and bears many dendritic papillae. The underside of
the shell is gray; white apertural teeth radiate to the
margins. As with most cypraceans, there is an ontogenetic
change in the shell. The orange pustules are not laid down
until near maturity. They are not formed simultaneously,
but gradually fill up the surface of the shell during its
change from the swollen bulloid juvenile to the adult.
Thiele (figure 2) illustrated the radula; there are strong
cusps on the lateral teeth, and the two outer marginals end
distally with thin, narrow, pectinate elongations.

The breeding habits of aquaria specimens of Jenneria
have been described by D'Asaro. The female cleans the site
she has selected for oviposition. Then an egg capsule is
passed from the oviduct, kneaded by the propodial muscles,
and then applied to the substrate with an adhesive secreted
by glandular cells.

The egg mass is oval shaped (about 30 mm in maximum
length), and contains 14 to over 200 egg capsules (figure
3). The egg capsules are shaped like inflated triangles and
measure 2.3 mm in length and 1.7 mm in width. Each egg
capsule (or ootheca) contains about 65-100 embryos. An
entire egg mass can contain between 1,200 and 21,000
individual embryos. Hatching takes place in about 2 weeks
and results in long-term planktotrophic veligers.

Jenneria pustulata feeds on scleractinians. Its preferred
diet in the wild is the coral Pocillopora. Studies on coral
reefs of the Pacific coast of Panama reveal some interesting
aspects of the biology of Jenneria. In the coral com-
munities of Panama, Pocillopora colonies completely
stripped of their tissues by Jenneria are quite common.
Feeding is nocturnal, and during daylight hours the snails
remain clustered around coral being consumed. Because of
the intensity of predation, regeneration by the coral is not
possible. This allows grazed surfaces to be overgrown with
algae and other foreign species. The four major predators
on Pacific Panamic coral reefs are Jenneria pustulata. two
hermit crabs (Trizopagurus magnificus and Aniculus
elegans). and a puffer fish {Arothron meleagris). Of these,
the unassuming Jenneria accounts for over 75% of the
damage to the coral reef studied by Glynn, Stewart, and
McCosker. The abundance o{ Jenneria in the coral reef was
estimated at 1.8 per square meter.

There is only one extant species of Jenneria. However,
the genus dates from the Miocene, and there are seven



known fossil species: J. gabbiana (Guppy), J. domincensis
Olssons, J. pilsbryi Olsson, J. loxahatchiensis (Maxwell
Smith), J. richardsi Olsson, J. helperi Olsson, and J.
venezuelana Gibson-Smith. These species have been found
in Florida, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, and Venezuela.
The fossil species are primarily Caribbean, but the one
living species occurs in the eastern Pacific. With the closure
of the Central American seaway, species that may once
have occurred across a broad swath of tropical American
waters, were split and isolated into separate populations on
either side of Central America. Some evolutionary lineages
survived only on one side. Jenneria pustulata exhibits a
"paciphile" distribution. This is zoogeographically interest-
ing, because J. pustulata feeds on corals. The species di-
versity and abundance of corals is greater in the Atlantic,
yet the coral-feeding Jenneria has survived in the Pacific
where its preferred prey is far less abundant.

The beauty of its shell only hints at the intricate biologi-
cal wonders of this marvelous species. Its behavior in areas
where extensive coral reefs do not exist (throughout most of
its distributional range) is largely unknown. As with most
mollusks, the study of this species requires field observa-
tions of living animals as they occur in their habitats. Data
can best be recorded by underwater photography, or by tak-
ing appropriate notes in the field (e.g., measurements of
animal, date, depth, substrate, feeding, relative abundance
of undisturbed populations, etc.).

ADDITIONAL READING

D'ASARO, CHARLES 1969. The egg capsules of Jenneria
pustulata (Lightfoot, 1786) with notes on spawning in the
laboratory. The Veliger 11(3):182-184.

GIBSON-SMITH, J. 1974. On two new members of the family
Ovulidae (Mollusca: Gastropoda) from the Cantaure formation,
Venezuela. Boletin Informativo Asociacion Venezolana de
Geologia, Minera y Petroleo 17(4-6):87-96.

GLYNN, PETER W., R. H. STEWART, & J. E. McCOSKER
1972. Pacific coral reefs of Panama: Structure, distribution and
predators. Geologische Rundschau 61(2):483-519.

Cheers,



Don

 

I guess I know a little more. The adult sizes range from 11 to 33mm, and once the "teeth" on the bottom of the shell are formed, it's not going to get any larger, just thicker, same as most other relatives of the cowries. It's not a true cowry, of course. Its range is from the Galapagos to the Sea of Cortez. Water around the Galapagos is cold, but temps in the upper part of their range can be tropical-ish. I don't know exactly what temperature would suit them best, but I suspect it would be something less than typical reef temps. Good luck!


Don