tiger corie snails

these are not reef safe right just to double checking what i have been told i also heard they eat sea urcins aswell as starfish is this true?

 

I've had my tiger cowrie for about 1 year, with many different corals, inverts, and such. I have never had a problem with it bothering anything and it makes a great algae eater (enormous appetite). I also have a pincushion sea urchin that has lived happily in my aquarium alongside my urchin for many months now, and they have never bothered each other (I don't really understand how a cowrie could tackle a sea urchin anyway with such a powerful defense).

Still, like many dwarf angelfish, even though mine has never bothered anything, I would not consider it 100% reef safe. There have been reports of the tiger cowrie eating different coral from many other people- and for all I know- this could very well be true. Or it might be that the corals were dying and the cowrie was finishing the job- who knows!

One thing's for sure- If you do decide to purchase one- keep a close eye on it for quite some time- cause every species has good apples and bad- and that includes cowries.

 

Nah, they won't eat urchins or starfish. They eat algae and little microorganisms off the rocks and glass, and may sometimes scavenge on meaty dead things. They lack the equipment to kill anything that they can't nibble to death with their little raspers. The main complaint from the occasional cowry keeper is that they may get hungry and mow down a patch of zoanthids. Other than that, about the only complaint is that they tend to be bulldozers in a tank and knock things over or move them around.

Cheers,



Don

 

ive had multiples in a tank i take care of munching away on singulara leathers and many corals didnt do well until i took them all out. I didnt add them to the tank, they were in there before i took over taking care of the tank.

 

they eat soft coral and sponges i have one in jail now ,(fuge) "They are not cool i repeat not cool

 

HMMM, you guys had TIGER COWRIES that ate sponges, and leathers??? If either of you really had a Tiger Cowry that did those things, it was starving. Multiple tiger cowries in anything less than a mega tank is foolish in any case, unless you can figure out what they'll eat and feed them supplementally. I suppose you both must have had real Tigers, since they are huge and don't look like much else, but the behavior you're describing sounds like ovulid behavior, which aren't true cowries. I can't figure how a Tiger could eat a Sinularia. Was it sitting in one spot rasping on the stalk, or how was it eating it?

Cheers,



Don

 

In the interest of accuracy for people who find this thread and use it to decide how much of a threat Tiger Cowries present to other reef tank inhabitants, I'd very much like to know if luvsreefs23's multiple cowries were around 3 inches long and looked like this:

http://www.starfish.ch/Fotos/molluscs-Weichtiere/shells-Schnecken/Cypraea-tigris.jpg

or if they were around an inch long and looked like this:

PNG diving pictures - Madang pictures – PNG diving pictures from the unspoilt diving around one of the worlds most mysterious countries. Galleries of pictures from diving in Papua new guinea by photo-journalist Jez Tryner - Stock pictures available.

It would be interesting to verify that a Tiger Cowry actually repeatedly munched on a Sinularia leather, since I've never observed them or any cowry having anything at all to do with these species, and I don't know of any others reporting it either. There are very few predators on the reef that can feed on Sinularia, presumably because of their chemical defenses. One of only a couple Sinularia predators that I know of is shown in the link immediately above this paragraph, Calpurnus verrucosus (third row, middle pic, feeding on Sinularia). There is a related, smaller ovulid species that may also feed on them, but they only grow to a little over half an inch. Most things you find on the reef show evidence of at least attempted predation, but leathers almost never do, appearing "perfect" unless under attack by ovulids. The same areas may be populated by many Cypraea tigris, but I've never seen the slightest indication that they were interested in Sinularia as a possible food source.

As for bioreefdude's report, I'm interested to know what species of soft corals yours were eating, and what the sponges they were eating looked like. Were they round balls, encrusting overgrowth, colors, etc., and were they growing on top of the rocks or on the undersides of the rockwork?

Thanks a lot,




Don

 

I'd really like an answer from luvsreefs23 and bioreefdude. Can luvsreefs23 confirm for the scientific-minded that the cowries eating the Sinularia were true cowries and not ovulids, and can bioreefdude give some species names or descriptions of the "soft corals and sponges" that the Tiger cowries were eating?

Thanks,



Don