Tiger / Strawberry Conch

Care at a glance

Overview

A self-sufficient sand sifter that spends its time plowing through the sand bed for algae, diatoms and organic waste, leaving noticeably cleaner, better-turned sand behind it. It is a peaceful grazer that leaves corals, fish and other invertebrates alone. Like the fighting conch, its main risk is running out of food in an older, very clean tank, since it depends on a living sand bed rather than film on the rock, so supplement with sinking pellets or wafers if the sand looks picked clean.

In the wild

Conomurex luhuanus lives on sand flats and in shallow lagoons near coral reefs across the Indo-Pacific, from the Red Sea and East Africa across the Indian Ocean to northern Australia and out into the central Pacific, usually in the top 20 m of water. In the aquarium it wants a fine to medium sand bed at least a couple of centimetres deep to plow through and bury into, and it settles in best when placed directly onto the sand rather than on rock.

Good to know

Conomurex luhuanus is a true conch in the family Strombidae, formerly placed in the genus Strombus and still widely sold under that older name. The shell has a glossy, mottled tan-and-brown exterior and a bright orange-red aperture, which is where both the blood-mouth and strawberry nicknames come from. It reaches roughly 6–7 cm at the shell and, like other strombid conchs, moves with a clawed operculum rather than a crawling foot, hooking it into the sand to flip itself forward in a hopping motion.

Did you know

It gets both of its common names from the same shell: mottled brown-and-tan patterning on the outside earns it the tiger name, while the glossy orange-red mouth of the shell is what gives it the strawberry name.

Related species

• 

  Fighting Conch

  Strombus alatus

  3.1 in (8 cm)20 gal (75 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)

• 

  Mexican Turbo Snail

  Turbo fluctuosus

  2.4 in (6 cm)11 gal (40 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)

• 

  Pyramid Top Snail

  Tectus fenestratus

  2 in (5 cm)11 gal (40 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)

• 

  Cerith Snail

  Cerithium sp.

  1.6 in (4 cm)11 gal (40 L)72–79°F (22–26°C)