> Some marine organisms are cannibalistic as juveniles.
> It is tough to raise them if they keep eating each other.
>
> I would segregate and count a few to see if they do indeed become
cannibalistic.
>
> Back to the main question...
> What do Veliger Conus bengalensis eat?
> For that matter what does the adult prefer?

Dear Leslie and those interested in raising veligers or juvenile cone
shells.

If this species in question hatched out from the egg mass as crawling
juveniles, there might be cannibalism without proper food animals of
right sizes. One of my students did, however, successfully reared
juvenile Murex pecten in my laborotory because, thanks to cannibalistic
juveniles, some of whom survived after eating their sibs. There are
several adult Murex pecten of more than three years old in my tank. It
was much
better if we had juvenile bivalves for the newly hatched juvenile Murex.
There are
many species of muricid gastropods that eat nursery eggs inside egg
capsules to grow
and to emerge as well-developed predatory juveniles.

The veliger of Murex pecten eats phytoplankton for a short period
(around a week
or so). So, we provided cultured microalgae for veliger larvae up to
settlement of
the larvae to sedentary juveniles.

There is a hatchery at Prachuap Khiri Khan in Thailand and Ms. Jintana
Nugranad
is an expert of molluscan larval culture: She reared the largest mudicid
Chicoreus
ramosus from veliger to large juveniles. She might be able to help.

Masashi Yamaguchi
Faculty of Science
University of the Ryukyus
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
http://www.cc.u-ryukyu.ac.jp/~coral/