Dear Tom,
 
I guess this is just a coincidence. I have these kind of things too, but I
also have a gigas which was raised on a so-called gigas-farm. This shell
has almost no knobs. On the other hand, I found a gigas on Key West last
year (which I left because it was still alive) with quite large and sharp
spines. Maybe this has something to do with sex or habitat.
 
Maybe not much of a help
Best regards
David (Belgium)
 
On Thu, 15 Apr 1999, Thomas E. Eichhorst wrote:
 
> Since we have been hitting the Strombus gigas recently.  Has anyone
> noticed a difference between the S. gigas from the Keys and the S. gigas
> now available from Haiti?  I have a couple S. gigas collected in the
> Keys years ago and they have relatively small knobs on the spire whorls
> out onto the last whorl, rather than the obvious spines I see on most
> shells now offered.  Is this just a coincidence or is there really some
> variability?
>
> Tom Eichhorst in New Mexico, USA
>