- Joined
- Sep 25, 2006
- Messages
- 572
Cowries have a secret weapon!
I learned the hard way that cowries are not compatible with octopus. I put a small one inch long chestnut cowrie (Cypraea spadicea) with my bimac octopus in a 60 gallon tank. I knew the octo might eat the cowrie, but if the cowrie turned out to be live food, that was ok with me. All seemed fine for a week or two, Until my octo got hungry. I learned that cowries have an interesting defense mechanism: they produce huge amounts of thick slime. That little one inch cowrie turned enough of my tank water into snot to clog most of my overflow. I was lucky my overflow wasn't completely clogged. I think a "fist" sized cowrie could have turned my 60 gallon tank into a big block of clear jell-o. I fished out about a gallon of the goop with my hand net, and considered myself lucky that it didn't cause a pump failure.
Maybe this behavior is specific to the chestnut cowrie, and other cowries don't do it, but you won't catch me testing that theory in my tank.
I learned the hard way that cowries are not compatible with octopus. I put a small one inch long chestnut cowrie (Cypraea spadicea) with my bimac octopus in a 60 gallon tank. I knew the octo might eat the cowrie, but if the cowrie turned out to be live food, that was ok with me. All seemed fine for a week or two, Until my octo got hungry. I learned that cowries have an interesting defense mechanism: they produce huge amounts of thick slime. That little one inch cowrie turned enough of my tank water into snot to clog most of my overflow. I was lucky my overflow wasn't completely clogged. I think a "fist" sized cowrie could have turned my 60 gallon tank into a big block of clear jell-o. I fished out about a gallon of the goop with my hand net, and considered myself lucky that it didn't cause a pump failure.
Maybe this behavior is specific to the chestnut cowrie, and other cowries don't do it, but you won't catch me testing that theory in my tank.
