Category: Conchs

Conch shells are gastropods, or shells in one piece.

Horse Conch Called “Knobless Wonder”

When a reader left me a comment about my big horse conch photo, saying that it looked unusual, I began to look more closely at the horse conch photos I had taken and compare them with photos online. Apparently the horse conchs I usually find are called “knobless wonder”. This is because they lack the large bumps many horse conchs have.

Many horse conchs are very knobby, as in the photo below, which come from Wikimedia Commons. In this vintage photo it’s clear to see the bumps at the top of the shell.

Chad Wade Brome holding a horse conch shell- Sanibel Island, Florida (3251676272)

Photo credit: Creative Commons attribution photo at Flickr and State Library and Archives of Florida.

Photographed Big Shells: Horse Conchs Found on The Muddy Flats

Check out this horse conch photo from the Bailey Matthews Museum showing how knobby a horse conch usually looks and compare the image to my photos below. At the museum they go on to mention the “knobless wonder” on that same page which “lacks nodules” and can be found in southwest Florida. Well, I don’t live in southwest Florida. I live on the central East coast. I don’t think I’ve ever found a large horse conch shell with big knobs.

  • live horse conch marine snail huge seashell
    Horse conch
  • horse conch seashell
    Horse Conch

The horse conchs above were photographed and put back into the water where they were found. The one on the left has a snail inside and lots of barnacles and such on the outside. The second photo was one of the first horse conchs I found while boating. It had living creatures attached to the outside of the shell and was encrusted inside with all kinds of things, but the snail was gone. I got some photos and left it there. Neither shell seemed to have the obvious “knobs”.

I don’t usually get to collect horse conch shells, and only have two, and they are big. They measure 10 and 16 inches in length (in photos down the page). It was just lucky that I have those because most big horse conchs we come across while boating are alive. I love to see the living snail. Sometimes they are buried in the mud awaiting the incoming tide, like in the photo on the right below.

  • living horse conch
  • old worn conch and whelk shells
    Worn horse conch with knobbed whelks
  • Crusty horse conch living on mud flats of the Indian River
    Horse conch buried in mud

Juvenile Horse Conchs

The small horse conch juveniles usually house hermit crabs. By the way, most small horse conchs I see out on the mud flats do seem to have the knobs. Maybe they are more pronounced when the snail is young, or maybe they are in fact the knobby kind. I will have to pay closer attention.

  • horse conch
  • Four hermit crabs in the wild
    Four hermits in various seashells
  • juvenile horse conch seashell
    Baby horse conch shell

Horse Conch Comparison – Dirty / Clean (Somewhat)

The brown or black coating (called periostracum) that encrusts the shells is difficult to remove. It’s best to let it dry up and flake off on it’s own, which takes time. This is what I did for the two shells here. Below are comparison images from when the shell was found to now. In both instances it’s been a couple of years since they were collected and some coating remains.

big horse conch seashellhuge white knobless horse conch

The ten inch horse conch shell below has some bumps farther up the spire, but they are not as pronounced as some horse conchs. I cleaned this shell the best I could and eventually the coating peeled off, but not all.

florida horse conchhorse conch shell

How the Horse Conch Snail Moves

The huge, orange snail, which would have lived inside this shell, would be moving forward using the smaller end of the shell. When I look at a shell, I think of the pointed spire at the “front”, but that is really the back as he moves. This video is a good one for many reasons, but you can see a big horse conch moving as it chases down a tulip shell for it’s lunch.

  • white knobless wonder horse conch
  • siphon canal end of horse conch

The snail’s foot is used to maneuver. The shell I have is quite heavy, weighing in at 3lbs. 2oz. which is pretty amazing when you consider it’s carried by a snail! But the horse conch is no ordinary snail, and they do have the buoyancy from being underwater. For more horse conch information, watch this short video by the Whitney Laboratory at the University of Florida.

  • horse conch without knobs
  • dirty horse conch shell
  • huge white knobless horse conch

I love the beautiful texture of the shells. This largest shell has become quite white, but it also has some mold from sitting outside in my Florida garden. I’ll attempt to clean it up and get more photos. The periostracum is still flaking off.

In the video link above, I learned that horse conchs can live to be 30 years old. This shell is about 16 inches long and the maximum is about 24 inches. I think this conch had a pretty long life in order to create a shell this size. Read the story about how I came to be the caretaker of this shell.

Keep Reading: Recent Posts

March Hermits in Medium Size Horse Conch

A chilly boat ride took us to Three Sisters, among other places, where we found interesting shells filled with hermit crabs. Often I have seen tiny horse conchs, and a few times we’ve seen massive horse conchs, but this horse conch was medium size.

Hermit crab in a medium size horse conch shell
Spotted a cool horse conch among the oyster shells

As I waded through the 62 degree water on a 60 degree day, with a wind chill, I came across this pretty little shell. I knew right off that it was a horse conch, but it was larger than the ones I usually find.

Smaller horse conch seashell found in the mud
Dirty but pretty seashell

This shell had a very large hermit crab inside and he was tucked way down in. I couldn’t keep the shell so I got a few pictures on my iPhone, which I hoped would come out.

Here you can see the pretty lines and bumps which make up the shell, and orange to reddish brown coloring. I’m guessing that this shell was about 5-6 inches long. The snail had died for whatever reason, and a large hermit crab had moved in. Although I previously had read that Hermit crabs do NOT kill mollusks for their shell, this article has opened my eyes to the possibility. However, the crab mentioned lives in farther southern waters.

It is curious as to how hermit crabs just happen to find empty shells the correct size to hold their bodies. In this vast expanse of river, how would that happen? Hermit crabs don’t run around without shells, so how does it all begin?

A few weeks ago when we were out on the river, there were no hermit crabs anywhere, and very few shells at all. It makes me wonder if any of the hermits I see will kill a mollusk / snail and take over the shell for their home.

horse conch
Smaller horse conch shell with hermit crab inside

The horse conch shell was not in perfect condition and it was encrusted with mud, but it was a beauty just the same. Had it lived, it may have become up to 2 feet long. We have occasionally seen living horse conchs out on the little islands along the Indian River backwaters.

horse conch

We drove the Hewe’s Redfisher in behind Three Sisters and walked the sandy areas that were showing at low tide. But the water was coming back in, so the sand was disappearing. My son found a starfish / sea star, which I have never come across ever. This one was unfortunately dead and was missing two legs with another one broken. I came across a few gatherings of hermit crabs where it appeared they were checking out each other’s shells. We saw lots of little “baby” mollusks crawling about as well. This area is usually full of interesting wild creatures from the sea, and today did not disappoint.

Medium size horse conch seashell
Pretty horse conch

Various Horse Conchs I’ve Seen on Florida’s East Coast

  • Me and my daughter with horse conch
    Found a living horse conch
  • horse conch seashells
    Two shells and one black cat
  • living horse conch
    Guessing this bleached white horse conch is about 8 inches long.
  • Crusty horse conch living on flats
    Horse conch disguised
  • juvenile horse conch seashell
    Baby horse conch shell
  • horse conch seashell
    Horse Conch
  • old horse conch seashell underwater
    Spotting the old horse conch just offshore
  • Four hermit crabs in the wild
    Four hermits in various seashells

Even if the shells can’t be collected, the photos are fun to share. Being educated about what can be found in this wilderness area of Florida is my goal with this blog.

See a Living Fighting Conch Mollusk

At an island beach near the Ponce Inlet, on the central East coast of Florida, I discovered two of my favorite shells in shallow water. This is an area without many people (at least not when we visited) and whenever we visit I find some cool things. This day was no exception when I saw an Olive shell next to a Fighting Conch.

Olive and fighting conch beneath the water
Olive and Fighting Conch

Olive shells are too tightly wound for hermit crabs to inhabit, so if it was empty I could collect it. I reached down and rolled it and knew right away it was living. You can see the snail in the photo below.

The Fighting Conch was also alive and I saw the orange body as soon as I picked it up.

living fighting conch mollusk

Fighting conch shells can be beautiful colors having purple and maroon in the shell. This one was more brown and looks a bit broken along the edge. Both the Lettered Olive and Fighting Conch are easier to find on Florida’s Gulf Coast. Here on the eastern side I seldom come across them.

living fighting conch mollusk
Wow, beautiful color!

The Florida Fighting Conch (Strombus alatus) has a thick shell. Once I picked this one up he began to reach for the sand and came right out of the shell for me to see! I took quick photos and put him back so as not to stress him out.

After looking around online, those two thin appendages are its eyes. As for the rest, I’m not sure. Isn’t that orange color gorgeous? The horse conch is also bright orange.

living fighting conch mollusk
Living Florida fighting conch

The reason you won’t find nice shells like this on the ocean beach is that the mollusks like to live in calmer water where they have a food supply of algae and detritus.

In the same area I also found a living crown conch and watched as it crawled across the sand using it’s whitish foot.