Deer Cowrie

Just curious about Deer Cowries...Don, if you read this maybe you can chime in.

Been digging on them, and it seems that the cowrie family as a whole is hit or miss on being reef safe. The Tiger is completely out as reef safe, but it seems that both the Money and Deer seem to be benign and safe for use around corals.

Anybody have first-hand experience with them? I have a chance to pick up a couple locally for well under what I have seen them sell for online. They are attractive and that is more or less why I want to add them- for a little more diversity in the tank.

Any thoughts?

Cheers,
-Cameron

 

I dont know...I had a cowrie that was supposed to be "reef safe" It ate a rock covered in eagle eye zoos very quickly!

 

Well, that's kind of the problem with cowries, they are all "mostly" reef safe, even the bulldozer tiger cowries. But...they may occasionally go on a tasting spree, and a big cowry can taste away a patch of zoanthids fairly quickly. I never found any cowry associated with zoanthids in the wild, but I suspect that hungry cowries will try things in a reef tank that they wouldn't bother with on the reef. Tiger cowry territory usually looks mostly barren, with spots of turf algae and sometimes a little cyano, with very little macroalgae growth and little or no live corals. As for the Deer Cowries, both the Atlantic and Pacific (as well as the Panamic) species get fairly large, and large usually equals more problematic. If it were ME, I'd probably risk sacrificing the occasional zoanthid patch to keep a spectacular cowry like an Atlantic Deer Cowry. Then again, I always was partial to the Cypraeidae.

Very few things are absolutely reef safe. The definition of "reef safe" mostly boils down to "won't destroy the things in my tank that I want to keep alive." If I were in your shoes, I think I'd get one and see how it behaved, and if its behavior turns out to be too objectionable I'd trade it back in. Supplemental feeding may decrease the chances of grazing sprees, by the way, but there's always some level of risk. It's NOT going to go on a rampage and eat five different species of coral in one night, or something like that.

I've kept about thirty different cowry species, but never a Deer Cowry. Mostly they didn't bother anything. Mine were well fed, though. If you decide to try it, give us an occasional update on how it's going?

Cheers,



Don

 

God I love this site
I tend to fall into the same line of thinking-as long as it is potentially reef safe I usually don't have a problem giving it a shakeup if it is something that is worth it. Lord knows I am ready to bite the bullet on a crosshatch trigger when I get the large tank up and running

So the Deer Cowries get that large? I was under the impression they stayed in the 2"ish range and that it was the Tigers that quickly turned into hulking leviathans. Any region tend to stay on the smaller side?

 

Atlantic Deer Cowries grow to about 6 inches. A 3-incher is huge for a Pacific Deer Cowry. And the Panamic ones reach a little over 4 inches. However, if you already know the size of the cowry you're going to get, that probably means it's an adult, and adults don't grow any longer. They just thicken the shell a bit.

GL!


Don

 

as always , i really enjoy learning from pagojoe when he gives his very informed knowledge of the world of snails , inverts and other slimy crawly creatures. thank you don

 

I have one deer cowrie in my 180 for 3 months havnt had any problems so far. He stays under sand 98% of the time

 

Thanks guys. Kennedy, there are a couple hundred species of cowries, but only a handful will bury themselves in the sand. Most species try to hide under rocks or in crevices in the daytime, with a few exceptions (Tiger Cowry, Panther Cowry, and sometimes Arabian Cowry), and become active at night. Can you take a pic of your cowry?

Cheers,



Don

 

yeah i will next time hes out usually only see him about twice a month