Hi Conch-L'ers,

...And welcome to the list, Kathy Haddon!

I'm already above my self-imposed limit on the
number of posts to the list this month, but hey,
it's almost November.  Thanks for the answers
on my albinism questions, they were very edu-
cational.  I'm still wondering how long it takes
a conus textile to regenerate teeth, though.  No,
I don't really eat nudibranchs, I was just joking.

Last night something happened in the Cone
Wars aquarium that was at least as surprising
as anything I've seen happen there.  I had gone
out night snorkeling several nights ago, and
brought back a few molluscs that I put in my
aquarium: a Cymatium nicobaricum, a Strombus
luhuanus, three Strombus gibberulus gibbosus,
a Vexillum semifasciatum, a handful of Nassarius
spp., an Oliva caerulea, and a fat Oliva miniacea.

I have been introducing different species to the
tank for quite a while now to see how the resident
cones reacted to them.  What I've found is that
Art and Paul, my textile cones, certainly have their
preferences, but will eat almost any other mollusc
if they are hungry enough.  I am yet to see either
of them eat another cone, even though they have
assassinated several.  I left a Conus striatus in
the tank for the whole summer while I was in the
States, and the textiles never bothered him, even
though they got low on options.  What they have
eaten recently shows quite a varied diet.  Besides
the cowries, they have eaten Latirus barclayi,
Latirus craticulatus, Vexillum pacificum, Mitra
stictica (a big one), Bursa lamarckii, Bursa granu-
laris, Gyrineum gyrinum, Cymatium nicobaricum,
Cymatium mundum, Cantharus undosus, Nassarius
graniferus, Peristernia nassatula, Chicoreus brun-
neus, Strombus luhuanus(!) and Oliva miniacea(!!).

The Oliva minacea had been in the tank for quite
some time, rarely surfacing to climb the walls or
cruise the rubble.  I had put the olive in the tank
as a scavenger, figuring he would help keep the
aquarium clean, since they supposedly eat car-
rion (and cat food).  One morning I found him on
top of the gravel, aperture up, and there was no
trace of the olive left in the shell.  I was really
surprised that one of the textile cones had eaten
him, as they never seemed to show any interest
before.

That same day I found my recently-introduced
Strombus luhuanus empty, with the operculum
lying beside it.  The Strombus had only been in
the tank for three days, but had been a source
of entertainment.  He had some algae growing
on his dorsum, and within a few minutes of
putting him in the tank, one of the Cypraea
erosa crawled up onto his shell and started
grazing on the algae.  The Strombus didn't
seem to appreciate the extra load, and hopped
all over the tank in an apparent attempt at
shaking off the cowry.  The cowry rode him
like a good Texas cowboy, and in a little
over a day had completely cleaned the algae
off the Strombus' shell!

Because of these events, I thought I would
put a couple more Oliva and Strombus in the
tank.  All of the species of Strombus can
jump, and the Oliva are without question the
fastest of all the molluscs I've had in the tank,
so I am still amazed that the cones caught
them.  They obviously weren't as cautious
about using their harpoons on these guys as
they usually are, or they would have already
moved away by the time the cones decided
they were proper prey.

Anyway, with all of the new shells in tank, Art
and Paul came out of their hiding places, as
did Ross, the Conus canonicus.  The Oliva
miniacea (I think I'll call this one "Lynn") and
the Oliva caerulea went straight down into the
rubble, as did all of the Nassarius.  The
Cymatium nicobaricum was the first victim,
not by Art or Paul this time, but by Ross.
Ross enjoys a lot more success with Cyma-
tium nicobaricum and C. mundum than most
other species, and this time he seized the
opportunity and had the Cymatium extracted
within about twenty minutes.  Neither of the
other cones caught anything.

At least Paul had the opportunity to eat if he
had chosen, though.  While making a lap
around the perimeter of the tank he crawled
directly over one of the inverted Strombus
gibberulus, but only sniffed at him and contin-
ued on his way, crawling directly over the little
Strombus.  The textile cones eventually went
back underground to their ambush spots, and
Ross parked himself near one of the corners
of the aquarium.  All was reasonably quiet for
the next couple of days.

Two days later my wife and I were sitting in
the living room watching something forgettable
on TV when I heard, "Tak, tak" coming from
the aquarium.  I went over to see what was go-
ing on, and the Strombus luhuanus and the
three Strombus gibberulus were jumping all
over the tank, hitting the glass and making the
noise.  What I was surprised to see was Lynn,
my new Oliva miniacea, out speed-crawling
around the aquarium, apparently in pursuit of
the Strombus luhuanus!!!

Lynn was not in typical cruise-the-sand form.
She was flattened out and low to the ground,
with more foot area on the rubble surface than
I've ever seen.  (The foot almost looked rectan-
gular insted of oval.)  This is apparently the
"speed position" for an olive, as she was rap-
idly gaining on the Strombus.  She was crawl-
ing about one inch (25mm) per second!!!  I
yelled at my wife, Melissa, "Hey, come look
at this!"  We watched as Lynn overtook the
Strombus luhuanus, and proceeded to lift the
Strombus several inches off the bottom,
standing up on the back part of her foot.  I
was still trying to figure out how the olive
was holding the big luhuanus when a well-
placed kick allowed the luhuanus to break
free from her grip.  The Strombus hopped
away to the other side of the aquarium in
a panic.  Lynn only paused for a moment,
then continued with her counter-clockwise
circuit of the tank at a slower pace.

I was stunned.  I looked at Melissa.  "Do you
think that olive was trying to EAT that big
Strombus luhuanus?"  "It certainly looked like
it," she said.  We watched as Lynn reached
the far side of the aquarium, just in time to
meet one of the Strombus gibberulus who has
been hopping a clockwise circle around the
aquarium.  I soon saw how the olive had man-
aged to pick up the luhuanus.  As she approach-
ed the Strombus gibberulus, she flared out her
mouth, and then swallowed the entire Strombus
in one gulp!!!  I now realized that she was indeed
trying to swallow the luhuanus, and might have
succeeded in stretching her mouth around its
shell if it hadn't kicked free.  She then rolled over
onto her side, and swallowed the gibberulus deep
into her stomach.  You could see the lump as it
went down, like a snake that has eaten an egg.
She then righted herself and dove straight back
into the rubble, and hasn't made a reappearance
since.  The speed and efficiency of her attack
was a bit chilling.  Watching the cones feed is
like watching a slow motion movie, not so the
attack of an olive.

So much for the exclusive scavenger theory.  I
now wonder what other shells are buried in the
rubble that I haven't missed, eaten not by the
cones but by the olives!

Updates to follow (possibly).  Cheers,




Don