Arabian Cowrie (Mauritia arabica) eating my GSP

[ajmckay]

So a few weeks ago I scored a sweet deal on an arabian cowrie, a little over 2" long. I've never had a cowrie and thought it would be cool. The little bit of research I did indicated that they are reef safe for the most part but I did read accounts of Tiger cowries noshing on GSP and other soft corals, but the snail was really cool so I decided to go for it - hoping it would be less aggressive than the tiger cowrie. It does a great job, probably equal to a large turbo snail or possibly even a little better at consuming algae (at night for the most part, and on rocks).

 

Well, the other day I noticed my GSP, normally open and spreading like a weed, was closed and looked a little ragged. This went on a day or 2 and then I looked at night and saw the cowrie all over it and it hit me.

 

Pic:

 

For now I transferred it to the sump, but there's not much in there so I think I'll need to make a decision pretty soon if I want to keep him or try to get some credit at my LFS for something else.

 

Any other cool snails anyone can recommend that are more reliably reef safe but still awesome? I'm thinking a fighter conch might be cool. My tank is a 40b btw..

[ndrobey]

Bumble bee snails are pretty, but small.

[jamescstein]

Bumble bee snails are pretty, but small.

 

They are also known to kill other snails, not really CUC safe.

[ajmckay]

Good news is GSP is coming back, I have no doubt it will continue growing quickly.

[RBS5]

Have heard these guys will go after various polyps as well as algae. Opportunistic for sure.

[ajmckay]

Yeah it's a huge bummer because they're extremely good looking compared to your typical snail and it was quite efficient as a CUC member as well.

 

So far the only thing it went after was the GSP mat - and even then the GSP bounced right back within a day after being munched on for about 3 days. So if you had a large enough mat of GSP it might actually be beneficial in keeping the stuff from growing out of hand.