money cowrie

[DrayB]

hi all.
can anyone tell me why money cowries do this?
i never had any idea they did this and was a little freaked out as i had only just added to the DT :)

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

Bump for help with this one.

 

[DrayB]

sorry, I've had a bit of a look on tinterweb, seems like thats their foot and how they get around. the protrusions may be feelers/sensors looking for munchy algae to....well.....munch on :)

 

[thebluecatapilla]

So pretty!

 

[Vaughn17]

That is the snail's mantle. With the money cowry, its mantal is cryptic (looks sort of like algae) in order to camouflage it from predators. It (mantle) can cover the entire outer shell.

 

[Clayalaleona]

Basically what he said ^^^ used for camo.
I love these little guys SOOO much. I can get a frag COVERED in algae from anyone and overnight they'll help me out

 

[NanaReefer]

I've had my Cowrie for about a year. First time I saw it's shell covered with the uglys I freaked-lol.

 

[Vaughn17]

Basically what he said ^^^ used for camo.
I love these little guys SOOO much. I can get a frag COVERED in algae from anyone and overnight they'll help me out

I'm a she. And I agree that the money cowry is a hair algae eating machine! Way better than turbos. They don't seem to bother corals, either, IME, although once, I was sold another species (unknown) that was supposed to be just an algae eater, too, but when it ran out of algae it ate a few of my LPS.

 

[Clayalaleona]

I'm a she. And I agree that the money cowry is a hair algae eating machine! Way better than turbos. They don't seem to bother corals, either, IME, although once, I was sold another species (unknown) that was supposed to be just an algae eater, too, but when it ran out of algae it ate a few of my LPS.

Probably a tiger cowrie. Money's are pretty much the only ones that are reef safe

 

[Vaughn17]

Probably a tiger cowrie. Money's are pretty much the only ones that are reef safe

Not a tiger. It's shell was colored similar to a millet cowry (and not nearly as beautiful as a tiger's, and it had the coolest cryptic mantle, much more ornate than the money cowrie's), but there are about 500 species in the genus Cypraea, and a lot of them looked very similar, so I definitely could be wrong. Anyway, while it seemed to prefer algae, the mystery cowry was obviously an omnivore. Since I didn't want the it to munch any more of my corals, I donated the it to the local Petco, which has plenty of hair algae.

 

[rcdolphin714]

I've had my Cowrie for about a year. First time I saw it's shell covered with the uglys I freaked-lol.

Where can I buy one?