Every time I eat a nudibranch it makes me a little
dizzy.  Not as bad as those tree frogs I used to eat
in the Amazon, though.

I was talking with two of the security guards at the
Pago Pago Yacht Club one night, and showed them
a few of the cones I had just collected: geographus,
striatus, textile, and leopardus.  "You are going to
eat them?" one of the guys asked.  I told him no,
that these kind were poisonous, and that you couldn't
eat them.  He said, "No, these very good!" pointing
to the leopardus and the geographus.  He told me
they bake them in the shell in the "umu," and then
pull the animal out and eat it.  The other fellow backed
up his story, but I've never seen or heard of anyone
here eating one.  I figure it's just as likely that they
were simply screwing with the palagi about the whole
matter.

Say, since I'm better at asking questions these days
than answering them (no offense, Art), here's one for
you cone guys.  Every molluscivorous or piscivorous
cone that I've dissected ("hacked apart" might be more
accurate) had from 15 to 20 radular teeth, or harpoons,
that were more or less ready for use.  Typically about
5 of these were not completely formed, though the
shaft was obvious.  The question is: how long does it
take a cone shell (Conus textile, for example) to grow
new teeth that are ready for use?

What prompted this question was a neo-Cone Wars
incident that occurred in my aquarium a few nights ago.
I had dumped a few different species into the tank to
see if I got any reaction from the permanent residents
(Art and Paul, my two textile cones, and Ross, my
canonicus cone).  One of the shells that I dropped in
was a fairly small latirolagena smaragdula.  Art evidently
thought he was interesting, as he came out of the gravel
and headed over to investigate.  What he did, with three
witnesses, was harpoon the latirolagena five times!  Each
time you could see the cloud of venom explode into the
water.  The latirolagena managed to seal himself up in
his shell, and after about thirty minutes of trying to get
him out, Art crawled away and buried himself in the rubble.
At this rate of usage, Conus textile had better be pretty
quick at regenerating teeth, one would think.  Anybody
know?  Bruce?

Many thanks,



Don
in Pago Pago

----------
> From: Ross Mayhew <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: "If it ain't edible..."
> Date: Saturday, October 23, 1999 9:53 AM
>
>         Although i do not personally eat snails, slugs and such, i am
> wondering if there are any molluscs that are actually poisonous if
> eaten - is the poison of cones, for example, inactivated by stomach
> enzymes, or is it even absorbed into the blood stream while being
> digested?  Has anyone ever heard of a case of "shellfish poisoning"
> which was actually due to chemicals produced by the Mollusc, and not
> just associated commensal, symbiotic, parasitic or pathogenic organisms?
> Cheers,
> Ross.
>
> P.S.: sunny and 60 here right now - one good thing about our climate:
> if you don't like the weather, just wait a minute!
> --
> Ross Mayhew: Schooner Specimen Shells:
> Http://www.schnr-specimen-shells.com
> "We Specialize in the Unusual"
> Phone: (902) 876-2241; Fax: (603) 909-8552.
> But try to find "something for Everyone"!!
> Snail Mail: 349 Herring Cove Rd, P.O Box 20005, Halifax, N.S., Canada,
> B3R 2K9.