The beautiful coloring of shells won’t last forever and especially if you put them outdoors in the sun. I have learned this the hard way!
I bought a couple of large pink conchs about 20 years ago (I no longer buy seashells) and I’ve been putting them on my sunny porch railing in summer. Lately I’ve noticed that they are looking more faded and not quite so pink and it’s because of the sun! Mollusks spend their time living down in the water, out of the sun so it stands to reason that shells are not made to withstand sunshine.
On the other hand, if your starfish or sand dollars need brightening, just set them out in the sun for a while. They are much more brittle than a sea shell and be sure to bring them in when it rains because water will make them soft.
The Pink or Queen Conch (Strombus gigas), can grow to be a foot or more in length and has a smooth pink interior. (Horse conch snails can grow to be 2 feet long!). The pretty shell is in danger of disappearing because of its collection as a decoration after the snail is pulled from it’s home to be eaten! Have you ever eaten conch? I have not. In Florida and other Caribbean areas, the conch is a delicacy and is made into fritters and other food, but it has been over fished so there are restrictions and fines associated with the collecting of it. Conch meat is used in chowder, salads, fried, fritters, sandwiches and more.
Queen (Pink) Conchs
For these two reasons, the Queen or Pink conch is in high demand. It is very unlikely that you will just come across a large, empty queen conch on the beach. They are trawled and taken from their homes out in the ocean and brought in for shell shops and restaurants. The queen conchs I have were purchased over 20 years ago at a shell shop some place in Florida. At the time, I never thought about where they came from, but I would definitely not purchase one now.
So when you vacation in the tropics, you might want to think twice before ordering conch fritters just to be able to say you’ve tried it.
*More strange food they eat in Florida – Alligator and turtle. I lived across the street from some people who had a cookout and the food was served buffet style. I added to my plate what looked like chicken nuggets and fortunately I was told that it was turtle meat before I tried it. Yikes, that was close. I love the Gopher turtles and could never ever eat one!
Surrounded by miles of beautiful beaches, when residents of the state of Florida decided to choose one type of mollusk as it’s state shell, I imagine that it was difficult.
In 1969 the Horse Conch won the title. The shell is found in the waters all around Florida and can grow to be very large. It can be up to two feet in length and the animal living inside is bright orange. It is the largest snail living in North America so I imagine that is the reason the Horse Conch won the title.
When my son and I go boating we occasionally find living horse conchs out on the mud flats at low tide.
The living horse conch has a dark brown coating on it’s shell. Often the shells are not very pretty when I see them in the wild. Usually they are partly buried in the muck.
Horse conch buried in mud
When the shell is exposed to sun, the coating, called periostracum, dries and flakes off to leave a whitish shell.
Shells found in nature will most likely have a much different appearance than the shells you see in pictures because those have usually been cleaned up. Knowing the basic shape of a shell or some other characteristics – other than color – may help you identify what you have found.
The juvenile horse conch is yellowish in color. Usually the ones I find have hermit crabs inside.
Tiny horse conch shell with hermit crab inside
A shell which resembles the horse conch is the Tulip shell. It is also elongated but with rounded and smooth body whorls as compared to the bumps on a horse conch. Tulip shells don’t grow as large and the snail is not bright orange like the horse.
