Conch

Henry was sold to us as a fighting conch but the other pictures of fighting conchs I've seen show a white or tan colored snail and Henry looks like a dark green. Any idea of what species he is? I love him and hate to think of him getting too big for our little tank

 

Good pics. It's Strombus (Canarium) urceus, or Bear Conch. They actually don't grow as large as Fighting Conchs, with adults ranging from about an inch to two inches. Once they reach adulthood, they quit growing. Yours is either an adult or almost adult, as the strombid notch has already formed on the lip. It won't get any larger.

I've often wondered why this species isn't more common in the aquarium trade. They should be better choices in small setups than most of the other conch species, I'd think.

Cheers,


Don

 

That's great news! Thank you so much Don, you made my day ;D

 

Are conchs a good addition to a clean up crew? I havent really read much about them?

 

They're good sand sifters, definitely a good addition in my opinion.

 

Thanks! Guess I will have to pick one up. I currently have some nassarius snails that sift my sand but a conch wont hurt.

 

They ae great in a CUC...I have two and they do a fantastic job!! they are like little vaccums that put themselves away...very cool to watch and the crabs don't seem to bother them at all.....but they are limited to the sand area....and they do dig in pretty deep! need 1-2 inch sand bed Good Luck

 

sounds good.

 

My fiance said that one of the bumblebee snails got on top of Henry's shell and he KICKED the snail and it went flying lol
I didn't even know conch's had that kind of ability! Henry is awesome!!

 

Haha that sounds awesome! I like the look of the bumblebee snails also.