Tag: big seashells

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.

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Gorgeous True and Banded Tulip Shells

Tulip shells can be some of the prettiest I ever find, but I rarely find them! Then, the other day when we boated up to a new (for us) little sand bar, it turned out to be the ‘island of tulip shells’.

Tulip snails can be found all around the coastline of Florida, or just about. The tulips are elongated shells which are similar in shape to the Horse Conch but don’t get as large. They are all “spindle” shells. The top and bottom of the shell is long with a rounded center part. Horse Conchs are bumpy at the top whereas Tulips are smooth.

True tulips, like the one pictured here, grow larger than the banded variety and they have less distinct horizontal bands. Both types have beautiful splotches of color that can be gray, brown, orange, pink or maroon.

I spotted this beauty and moved in for a closer look.

The big tulip was moving (because a hermit crab was living inside) against the flow of the water quite fast. Mollusks move slowly, so I knew it was a crab that had taken over. I called my son over to see the shell and the crab just kept moving along. He wasn’t bothered at all by our approach!

True tulip barnacles hermit crab
A large hermit crab moves this Tulip shell along just under the surface

My Super Short Video of This Hermit Crab in a Pretty Tulip Shell

Even covered in barnacles, this True Tulip coloring was hard to miss. The maroon and pink colors were just stunning and the shell is quite large. True Tulip’s grow to be 5 inches according to my reference book, but this one is at least six inches long.

true tulip, seashell, pink, maroon, barnacles,
Large true tulip shell

Top and bottom of the True Tulip

This masterpiece of a seashell has pretty blue-green coloring inside. I did not notice this until I looked at my photos! I was careful how I held this one because that hermit crab was big. Usually the hermits stay tucked up inside, but sometimes I find a brave guy who likes to come out. I wasn’t taking any chances.

large true tulip shell with barnacles

True tulips will eat banded tulips! There is no mercy in the animal kingdom.

A Beautiful Dark Banded Tulip Shell

On the same muddy island I also came across this gorgeous banded tulip. Banded tulips are generally smaller than the True type and the bands are clearly seen. The dark coloring is striking and a hermit crab was tucked up inside.

banded tulip seashell
banded tulip dark brown

The banded tulip below is partially covered by hardened sand. The elements of salt and sun can do some damage. And then there are the barnacles that will attach themselves in clusters. When I find shells like this there is always something living inside so I move the shells as little as possible to get photos.

With a whole island to explore, I gave each sighting a bit of time and moved on to see what was coming next. On this day, there turned out to be a whole lot to see. In fact, I rarely find Tulip shells at all. But, as you can tell, this day was different. None of them held the snail that made the shell, which was unfortunate.

Also view the Shell Guide pages at Bailey Matthews Shell Museum to see more about this marine snail.

tulip shell crown conch hermit crabs

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Zana’s Seashell Legacy

Zana is my friend’s mom and she died not too long ago. She had been living with her daughter, my friend Judy, until her death. I was living in New Hampshire at the time, so I never got a chance to say good-bye to Zana (who had the coolest name ever!). But the other day I visited Judy (now that I live in Florida once again) and I discovered Zana’s seashell legacy.

We were hanging out by the pool at my friend’s house and I noticed a collection of seashells on her table. The size of the shells caught my attention first. I took a closer look, and in the ceramic bowl, full of old rainwater, I found amazing treasures.

helmets and murex seashells
Beauties!

I began to remove the shells from the shallow bowl, one at a time, to get a better look. I was stunned at what I saw! I told my friend that I had to get some photos of these shells. Judy said they had been her mom’s. Well, I had questions! Where did she get them? Did she collect them herself? Where was she when she found them? My friend didn’t know.

I have since found some answers. Read more about the Helmets on another post.

West Indian crown conchs
West Indian Crown conchs and a big helmet shell

My friend seemed uninterested when I said that these were really awesome seashells!!! I continued to take photos and my friend insisted I pick out a shell or two and take it home. I said, “No, I just want photos”. These were her mom’s collection and she may have found the shells on Florida’s beaches long ago. Zana lived in Florida all her life and she obviously thought enough of the shells to keep them with her when she moved in with her daughter.

I was pretty sure that the big ones were helmet shells. I’d never seen helmets in real life, only in my books. Never in my life did I imagine I would see such beauties in person! Maybe shells like these were not all that hard to come by on Florida beaches long ago. Imagine that..!

scallop shells
Beautiful scallop shells

As I packed up my swimsuit and belongings to leave, Judy was at the shell table and she was loading all the shells – yes, ALL THE SHELLS – into a basket and told me I was taking them all home with me! I protested. She said that I was the shell girl and they were now mine. I could go write about them on my blog.

Washing the seashells in the sink
Cleaning the shells in my sink

Today I cleaned up the shells, which were a bit slimy, and will spend some time soon getting good photos of each of the larger ones. The scallops are big and beautiful as well, and I would love to know where they came from. I can’t imagine Zana buying them. She was a nature lover, gardener and all around fun lady. I’d sure love to talk with her. I’ll need to do some research on the helmets (King or Queen?) and write posts featuring them. I know for certain you don’t just walk along a Florida beach nowadays and come across such gorgeous shells.

Lovely pink inside the murex shell

Now that the shells are cleaned up, I’m thinking that my friend will enjoy them more. I can’t in good conscience keep Zana’s legacy when it is not rightly mine. The best of these shells will make their way back to the home they belong in, eventually. But in the meantime I will have fun sharing my photos with all my readers. Thanks Zana!