GOOOOD morning to all Conch-Lers,
 
This is not a very technical question, but may anyone explain me why Astraea
soft parts are SO BAD SMELLING?!!!
 
This weekend I was cleaning some Astraeas collected in Buzios (a tourist
city 150 miles north of Rio de Janeiro) during the Xmas holidays. The soft
parts were stinking so bad that my wife almost threw the shells (and their
owner) in the garbage. Since I live in an apartment, even using the laundry
area of it to clean the shells, the bad smelling attached to every inch of
the apartment for hours.
 
We needed to open all windows (can you imagine this in a winter like yours)
and spray odour neutralizer all over my house. My wife said that if I even
collect an Astraea again we'll get divorced (in fact she allows me to
collect but not to clean then).
 
The worst part were that my hands were also stinking, no matter how much I
washed them... and I needed to smell it for hours. I felt myself an
opossum!!
 
I noticed that Astraea caelata collected in Cartagena, Colombia were also
very bad smelling. I also noticed that some Tegula soft parts stink. On the
other hand, yesterday I cleaned several Acanthinas and other shells and
"nothing" happened.
 
The question is why some shells soft parts are so bad smelling while others
are "acceptable"? What could I do to avoid a "tragedy" like this?
 
Stinking cheers from Brazil,
 
Eduardo