Dear Susanne, Theresa, Bobbi, and all interested parties;
 
What have my cowries ate while they were in my aquarium.  First of all I
will tell you which cowries I had in the aquarium.  I had a Cypraea
zebra which lived 6 years, a Cypraea cervus that lived 5 years, and
various other zebra and cervus that came and went.  The Cypraea arabica
was the one that lived 21 years.  I had two of them and one of them
actually killed my Cy. zebra.
 
What they ate.  I mostly fed them Coquinas, Donax variablis.  I would
get Coquinas in the last summer and freeze them and sometimes open them
by hand or just let them open in the aquarium when they thawed out.
They liked pen shells, Atrina rigida.  They would eat the digestive
tract first, probably because of the algae that was in the stomach, then
the mantle.  They would leave the mussel which is what we eat.
 
The cowries would have to compete with a Triton trumpet, Charonia
variegata, which lived 4 years, and lettered olives and the tiny Prunum
apicinum would wade right in among the giants and get their share.  I
have fed the cowries, rabbit pellets which I would drop into halves of
heart cockles, Dinocardium robustum vanhyningi.  The pellets would turn
into green mush which will filter down though the bottom and the cowries
couldn't reach it without the cockle bowl.  They ate lettuce which I had
to weight down with something.  Sea lettuce was eaten and algae covered
rocks.  And like theresa said, they would eat the base of anemones.
They would compete for food by biting each other until one or the other
would give way.  The radula would lash out.  It would come quite a
distance from the probosis. I had a 4 inch true tulip that would kill
and eat almost any other shell, but it kept out of the way of the
cowries.  They would bite its foot until it moved out of the way.  The
cowries would eat shrimp and scallops, but if this food wasn't eaten it
would polute the tank.  The Pen shells rarely poluted the tank.  That's
it for now.  Its storming outside so I had better get off before I lose
everything.  I have a Back up APC, but you never know.  Oh!  I almost
forgot, I had a Cy, Zebra breed with a Cy. cervus, but nothing came of
it.
 
Bob
 
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Bob & Betty Lipe mailto:[log in to unmask]
The Shell Store: http://theshellstore.com