Hi, Everyone!

I just have to add one thing to this discussion.   I was having trounle ith the Phillipine specimens of Conus pertusus fading
badly, even when kept in complete darkness.   Then a dealer told me to soak off the usual oil, then spray them (the new ones I had received) with Wd-40.   They re still brightly colored after 10 to 15 years.   I spoke to one of our malacologists about this, and he said that in this case, fading was probably due to pigment oxidation, and the WD-40 was preventing air from getting to the shell.

I have used it on a few other shells, as an experiment and have noticed no other result than I ould with our usual concoction.   However, most of my shells are in plastic bags
or boxes, so they don't tend to get dusty anyway.

Cheers,
Linda