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View Full Version : My green hair eating machine


kryppy
09/13/2008, 10:27 PM
This Atlantic Deer Cowrie(?) has eaten about three pounds of GHA in about two weeks! I am afraid he is going to starve in roughly a week when he finishes up the last of it.

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g167/kr-yppy/deercowery/IMG_1327.jpg

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g167/kr-yppy/deercowery/IMG_1329.jpg

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g167/kr-yppy/deercowery/IMG_1330.jpg

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g167/kr-yppy/deercowery/IMG_1331.jpg

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g167/kr-yppy/deercowery/IMG_1332.jpg

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g167/kr-yppy/deercowery/IMG_1334.jpg

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g167/kr-yppy/deercowery/IMG_1335.jpg

The business end. :)

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g167/kr-yppy/deercowery/IMG_1338.jpg

DrBarnes
09/13/2008, 10:36 PM
how big is he? and where can i get one!

ccorpse27
09/13/2008, 10:36 PM
Yikes... creepy.

BuddhaKiss
09/13/2008, 10:43 PM
That shell is wicked!!

jrenoe1
09/13/2008, 11:36 PM
Do they eat red hair algae also?? I got a little that I need dealt with ;)

RockStarFish
09/13/2008, 11:40 PM
You can send him to me

Nuuze
09/13/2008, 11:43 PM
Cool looking! :)

Maybe loan it out in your area?

Tang Salad
09/14/2008, 12:30 AM
Great pictures! I've never seen one before.

Is he potty trained?

Chihuahua6
09/14/2008, 02:50 AM
Maybe you can pass it around to other reefers. There are plenty with GHA problems.

BTW what is the name of the nudibranch in your avatar? I found one like it a couple of years ago. It came in on a purple gorgonian (photosynthetic Atlantic species.)

kryppy
09/14/2008, 07:12 AM
Thanks everyone. He is very cool to say the least, when he fully retracts his mantle the shell is even more amazing looking, but the glare from it has so far blown out any pictures I have tried to take.

He is about two and a half inches long. I found him down in the Florida Keys. For a big guy he doesn't bother or knock over anything.

jrenoe1, I have no idea if he eats red hair algae since I don't have that...yet.

Chihuahua6, That is the world famous aptasia eating nudi in my avatar known as Aeolidiella stephanieae, they are often misidentified as Berghia.

http://www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet.cfm?base=aeolstep

I have seen so many different nudis who look just like him yet have vastly different diets I couldn't even begin to count, but since you found yours on a purple gorgonian it is seems likely to me you might just have got one as a hitchhiker....unless he was eating it. :)

BigJay
09/14/2008, 09:48 AM
When he eats most of the hair algae, give him a few square inches of nori rubber-banded to a rock a few days per week.

That way he stays fed and alive. So he'll continue to graze down any hair algae you get.

KRASHPD
09/14/2008, 09:56 AM
Nice job with the pictures. He is very cool looking. I also would suggest passing him around to other reefers that have hair algae problems so that he doesn't starve.

paulallen
09/14/2008, 10:57 AM
How did you weigh the hair algae that it ate?

kryppy
09/14/2008, 02:57 PM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13351173#post13351173 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by paulallen
How did you weigh the hair algae that it ate?


LOL, that is the wet weight. :)

Jova
09/14/2008, 09:05 PM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13351173#post13351173 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by paulallen
How did you weigh the hair algae that it ate?
Duh! He just weighed the cowrie before he put it in the tank, and then he weighed it again after it ate all the algea and it was 3 pounds heavier!!! :)

yrema
09/14/2008, 09:25 PM
that is one cool looking cowry. :)

seapug
09/14/2008, 09:28 PM
Those guys are cool but have a reputation for being bulldozers. Good to hear it hasn't destroyed the rest of the tank during its grazing.

tanker
09/14/2008, 11:17 PM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13354459#post13354459 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Jova
Duh! He just weighed the cowrie before he put it in the tank, and then he weighed it again after it ate all the algea and it was 3 pounds heavier!!! :)

Are you saying it does not poop??

vaporize
09/14/2008, 11:23 PM
WOW these are life savers, wish they have it for sale somewhere here :)

more popular than any berghia :)

vaporize
09/14/2008, 11:24 PM
btw, what's the scientific name of this?

prickles
09/15/2008, 10:43 PM
do all cowries eat hair algae?

Kannin
09/15/2008, 11:18 PM
I think I saw one at my lfs today... I didn't know what it was, but I thought it was interesting.

vaporize
09/15/2008, 11:23 PM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13361822#post13361822 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by prickles
do all cowries eat hair algae?

Not sure, but something more common like a Tiger Cowre, they do eat hair algae when they are young, but as they grow older, they start to have a taste for corals. So many might not be considered reef-safe.

bubbly
09/16/2008, 12:32 AM
I just saw post about someone complaining (about a tiger cowrie, I think) that ate a patch of his GSP

pagojoe
09/16/2008, 08:14 AM
I don't think Tiger Cowries normally eat GSP's, so it was probably hungry (starving). Not all species of cowries will eat hair algae, but Cypraea (Monetaria) annulus and C. (M.) moneta will sometimes. Kryppy's cowry is a Cypraea (Macrocypraea) cervus, usually collected from Florida or the Caribbean. They sometimes grow to over seven inches, but the average one from the Keys is around 85mm, or about 3.5 inches. If they have formed teeth on the base, they are adults, or reaching adulthood, and won't grow any larger...so you don't have to worry about your three-incher growing into a seven-incher.

Cheers,



Don

Spliff{A}Reef
09/16/2008, 01:01 PM
I to had a tiger cowrie that looks just like the one pictured here but more brown..He ATE my flower pot, so WATCH OUT with these guys, my lfs advised that they only eat algae... WRONG,
I should have read my book first, it plainly says they eat corals