Hello All, And so the story continues. When we left off, the cones in my aquarium were not having the greatest success catching their dinner, even though the cowries were swarming all around. The big conus textile, Art, had already taken one fall from the top of the aquarium, but it wouldn't be his last. Shortly after the two Episcopatus brothers, Tom and Mark, passed each other near the surface of the aquarium, uneventfully, the first of the real cone interactions took place. Art had climbed slowly back to the top of the tank, and was easing toward one of the cypraea cauricas on the left, when he encountered Mark face to face. The two cones sniffed each other, and then seemed to get tangled up a bit, each one apparently trying to climb over the other. In what appeared to be no more than a "get out of my face" gesture, Art zapped poor Mark! Once again, both cones tumbled to the bottom, but only Art crawled away. Marcus Episcopatus lay on his side, with his foot only extended a couple of millimeters outside the aperture of his shell. He never moved the rest of the night, other than his siphon, which he could still extend and retract. The fish in the aquarium were beginning to show some interest in the disabled fellow, so I interfered and rotated his shell so that the aperture was down, affording him a bit more protection. Two days later, Mark was still in the same position. Meanwhile, the cypraea lynx (now named "Helmut") had made about five circuits of the aquarium, crawled over every rock and log, across the top of the aquarium (which is a couple inches out of the water), and investigated every nook and cranny. His next action surprised me once again. After the encounter with Mark, Art had climbed back to the top of the aquarium, and had his sights set once again on a lonely cypraea caurica. Helmut climbed to the top of the aquarium, made a 90-degree turn, and bore down on Art nose to nose. Instead of going around the textile or retreating from him, Helmut climbed directly over his foot and siphon and onto his dorsum, and stopped, as if he had reached his destination. Within a few seconds, Helmut's weight caused Art to lose his grip, and for the third time (for Art) they tumbled to the bottom of the aquarium. Helmut immediately hit the wall of the aquarium and headed back to the top, but Art had evidently had enough, and remained on the floor of the aquarium. He crawled over to the cypraea erosa, who was half tucked under a rock, and remained there watching him for the rest of the evening. Helmut wasn't finished. Apparently enjoying the ride from Art, he headed straight up the wall for Tom, the remaining healthy conus episcopatus. Tom was slowly crawling toward a stationary cypraea caurica at the water line when Helmut overtook him from behind. Helmut climbed up on Tom's dorsum, this time from the spire, and once again stopped in the middle of the cone's back. The results were the same as with Art, and within a few seconds Helmut had pulled Tom off the wall, both plunging to the bottom of the tank. By now I was wondering whether this was some instinct that Helmut was exhibiting, a new trick he had just learned, or purely coincidence... Tom had had enough excitement for the night after the ride with Helmut, and decided to go to bed hungry. He righted himself, then stood up very tall, with more of his body ex- posed than I've ever seen before. He lowered his head and began to bury himself in the gravel. His shape lent itself well to this endeavor, and only his spire was visible within one or two minutes. With Tom now buried, Art on a stakeout, and Mark paralyzed, I turned out the main aquarium light and the living room lamp, and got ready to go to bed. I could still see what was going on from the light in the kitchen, and within a few seconds Eduardo, the conus magnificus, and Ross, the conus canonicus came to life. Heck, I'd killed most of the night watching the first act of the drama. I figured I might as well stay up and watch the second act... (to be continued...) And to those who made comments and suggestions, thanks. I am taking a few photographs with my digital camera, but the tank makes it difficult. I'm going to build a photo tank, but I won't be able to capture everything that goes on in the aquarium. I could videotape the drama, but everything happens in slow motion, as I'm sure Bruce and several others can attest. The drama is there in real life, but it would surely make a boring movie (to most people, at least). I did get a photo of the cypraea caurica's autotomized foot, and several photos of the cones either stationary or hunting, but every one of the "action" photos has failed to capture what was happening. More on the attempts at photography tomorrow, ha! Cheers, Don