Tiger Cowrie

[Xpilot]

My LFS has some really beautiful Tiger Cowies. I wanted to know if anyone had had much luck with them and how badly they may have moved the rock around, I have a Blue Tuxedo Urchin and haven't had any falling rock with him but I think the cowrie may be a bit heavier. I am also concerned about a small Saddled Toby that is about 1.5", the Cowrie I am looking at is about 2". Will have any issue with the two of them, the puffer does nip at the other smaller snails. Thanks for the help.

[joeychitwood]

The Tiger Cowrie is generally considered fairly easy to care for. They don't tend to develop the "torque" that an urchin does, so knock-downs aren't common. They will eat some anemones and softies.

[cjdevito]

If you want a truly reef safe cowrie, look for the money cowrie (c. moneta). They do show up from time to time.

[disc1]

Tiger Cowrie not real good in a reef tank IMO. They do have pretty shells. I would maybe just get the shell from a dead one.

[OceanGoer]

Puffers and snails generally don't play well together. Puffers will eat snails and crabs. The tiger cowie has a foot that can engulf its whole shell and because of this the puffer would probably mess with it to.

If you want you could go to walmart and buy raw shrimp to feed the puffer. Its cheaper then snails and crabs =)

[Xpilot]

Thanks for the help, I'll wait until the puffer goes to his permanent home in a few weeks. Why buy dead shells when you can have them living in your tank?

[disc1]

Why buy dead shells? Because they are pretty and the living thing might not be good for your tank. Sorta the same reason you might have a bear skin rug, but wouldn't keep the live bear in the house.

[Angel*Fish]

The Toby will most likely find him quite interesting no matter how big the cowrie is and unless you have tons of algae, I'd think in the long run it would be a challenge to keep this large snail fed even in a 150.