Dear Paul and Patrick, etc.  I know that most herbivorous families would
rather die than eat meat.  But that's not so with the Cypraeidae.  Of
course if I were in captivity I would probably eat whatever it took to
survive.  The cowries that I have had in my aquarium for over 20 years
ate just about everything.  They seemed to love the meat out of Donax
variablis and they would clean up a pen shell (Atrina rigida) real fast.
Other food that they ate was shrimp, fish, scallops, cockles, surf
clams, sea lettuce, romaine lettuce, rabbit pellets, algae, live
anemones, oysters and clams (Quahogs).  They were survivors.  I know
being in the aquarium made a difference, but in the wild I would think
they would eat what ever was handy if their normal food supply was gone.

The cowries that I kept were, cervus, zebra, acicularius, cinerea,
arabica, and tigris.  The arabica and tigris were bought at a pet shop.
I no longer have an aquarium.  Just a fresh water turtle that was born
in capitivity and has lived for 15 years, eating raw beef, lettuce, and
reptomin food.

Bob

[log in to unmask] wrote:
>
> Patrick, the gastropods include many herbivorous families (Cypraeidae,
> Littorinidae, Haliotidae, Trochidae, Turbinidae, Neritidae, Strombidae), but
> also many carnivorous ones (Conidae, Buccinidae, Cassidae, Fasciolariidae,
> Olividae, Mitridae, Muricidae, Turridae, Volutidae), so it's pretty hard to
> generalize.  All Cephalopods are carnivorous.  Almost all chitons are
> herbivorous.  Bivalves are pretty hard to classify, since they just filter
> out of the water whatever small particles come along.
> Paul M.

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