Hi Conch-L'ers, I waited a couple of days to post the initial results of the cone experiment because I wasn't sure exactly how some of the situations had turned out, and I'm still not completely certain, but here's how the evening unfolded: I dropped all five cones mentioned in the last installment into the aquarium, along with the ten cowries. One of the first things I learned was that fifteen molluscs intro- duced into a 55 gallon aquarium can produce a lot of slime (or "snial slobber," as I believe one young lady put it). Within an hour, all the fish were running circles and gasping for air, so I took my skimmer and dipped out all the slime that I could catch, and repeated this ex- ercise several times during the evening. It worked, and eventually the water cleared up, and the slime bubbles stopped covering the surface. It looked like things were shaping up for an absolute cowry slaughter from the very beginning. The cowries immediately hit the aquarium walls and headed for the top, and the big textile cone, Art, was the first to take chase, followed immediately by brothers Tom and Mark Episcopatus. All three headed for different cypraea cauricas, and the first to reach one was Tom. It just so happened that this was the caurica which had shed a piece of his foot earlier. His reaction made me realize why cowries aren't extinct. The cowry had crawled right to the water line, and positioned himself parallel to the water's surface, with about a third of the shell above the water line. As Tom climbed up on the cowry, looking for an appropriate spot to harpoon his dinner, the cowry withdrew most of his foot into the shell, clinging to the glass only with the part of his foot that was above the water. Tom spent several minutes trying to figure out where he should sting the cowry, and then...crawled away! Art Textile had been climbing toward a cowry not far from the one Tom went after, but as he approached his prey, I suppose Tom's cowry either looked or smelled better. About the time Tom decided the situation was hopeless, Art thought he would give it a try, but the results were the same. He didn't seem to find a place to harpoon the guy either, so he turned his attention to a big fat arabica a few inches away. The arabica stayed stationary while Art climbed up on him, and just when I was sure he was about to be eaten, the arabica released himself from the glass. Both he and Art tumbled to the bottom, breaking their union. While Art seemed a bit disoriented, the arabica crawled over to the glass, and climbed straight back to his perch at the top of the aquarium. Mark Episcopatus was also on the prowl at this time, and I got a bit more education by watching what he did. The third cypraea caurica was easing along near the water line when Mark approached him from behind. Just as Mark touched him with his siphon, the caurica seemed to realize he was in danger, and sped away from the cone! From watching these cones and cowries interact, it appears that all of the cowry species in my tank are capable of moving about five times as fast as any of the cones, at least moving horizontally on a vertical pane of glass. Mark turned around and headed back toward brother Tom, and as they met, they seemed to tip their hats to each other, and continued on their way. They were certainly not in a cannibalistic mood with all the cowries crawling around, which was just as I suspected. (to be continued...) I had initially refrained from naming any of the cowries, as I feared they wouldn't survive long enough to justify naming them, but more tomorrow, including the exploits of my cypraea lynx, "Helmut." Cheers, Don