Hello All,
 
And so the story continues.  When we left off, the cones in my
aquarium were not having the greatest success catching their
dinner, even though the cowries were swarming all around.  The
big conus textile, Art, had already taken one fall from the top of
the aquarium, but it wouldn't be his last.
 
Shortly after the two Episcopatus brothers, Tom and Mark, passed
each other near the surface of the aquarium, uneventfully, the
first of the real cone interactions took place.  Art had climbed
slowly back to the top of the tank, and was easing toward one
of the cypraea cauricas on the left, when he encountered Mark
face to face.  The two cones sniffed each other, and then seemed
to get tangled up a bit, each one apparently trying to climb over
the other.  In what appeared to be no more than a "get out of my
face" gesture, Art zapped poor Mark!  Once again, both cones
tumbled to the bottom, but only Art crawled away.
 
Marcus Episcopatus lay on his side, with his foot only extended
a couple of millimeters outside the aperture of his shell.  He never
moved the rest of the night, other than his siphon, which he could
still extend and retract.  The fish in the aquarium were beginning
to show some interest in the disabled fellow, so I interfered and
rotated his shell so that the aperture was down, affording him a
bit more protection.  Two days later, Mark was still in the same
position.
 
Meanwhile, the cypraea lynx (now named "Helmut") had made
about five circuits of the aquarium, crawled over every rock and
log, across the top of the aquarium (which is a couple inches
out of the water), and investigated every nook and cranny. His
next action surprised me once again.  After the encounter with
Mark, Art had climbed back to the top of the aquarium, and
had his sights set once again on a lonely cypraea caurica.
Helmut climbed to the top of the aquarium, made a 90-degree
turn, and bore down on Art nose to nose.  Instead of going
around the textile or retreating from him, Helmut climbed
directly over his foot and siphon and onto his dorsum, and
stopped, as if he had reached his destination.  Within a few
seconds, Helmut's weight caused Art to lose his grip, and
for the third time (for Art) they tumbled to the bottom of the
aquarium.  Helmut immediately hit the wall of the aquarium
and headed back to the top, but Art had evidently had
enough, and remained on the floor of the aquarium.  He
crawled over to the cypraea erosa, who was half tucked
under a rock, and remained there watching him for the rest
of the evening.
 
Helmut wasn't finished.  Apparently enjoying the ride from
Art, he headed straight up the wall for Tom, the remaining
healthy conus episcopatus.  Tom was slowly crawling
toward a stationary cypraea caurica at the water line when
Helmut overtook him from behind.  Helmut climbed up on
Tom's dorsum, this time from the spire, and once again
stopped in the middle of the cone's back.  The results were
the same as with Art, and within a few seconds Helmut
had pulled Tom off the wall, both plunging to the bottom of
the tank.  By now I was wondering whether this was some
instinct that Helmut was exhibiting, a new trick he had just
learned, or purely coincidence...
 
Tom had had enough excitement for the night after the ride
with Helmut, and decided to go to bed hungry.  He righted
himself, then stood up very tall, with more of his body ex-
posed than I've ever seen before.  He lowered his head and
began to bury himself in the gravel.  His shape lent itself
well to this endeavor, and only his spire was visible within
one or two minutes.  With Tom now buried, Art on a
stakeout, and Mark paralyzed,  I turned out the main
aquarium light and the living room lamp, and got ready to
go to bed.  I could still see what was going on from the
light in the kitchen, and within a few seconds Eduardo,
the conus magnificus, and Ross, the conus canonicus
came to life.  Heck, I'd killed most of the night watching
the first act of the drama.  I figured I might as well stay
up and watch the second act...
 
(to be continued...)
 
And to those who made comments and suggestions, thanks.
I am taking a few photographs with my digital camera, but
the tank makes it difficult.  I'm going to build a photo tank,
but I won't be able to capture everything that goes on in the
aquarium.  I could videotape the drama, but everything happens
in slow motion, as I'm sure Bruce and several others can attest.
The drama is there in real life, but it would surely make a
boring movie (to most people, at least).  I did get a photo of
the cypraea caurica's autotomized foot, and several photos of
the cones either stationary or hunting, but every one of the
"action" photos has failed to capture what was happening.
More on the attempts at photography tomorrow, ha!
 
 
Cheers,
 
 
 
 
Don