King's crown - Seashells by Millhill

The crown conch shell is one I see a lot while boating and walking in the river at low tide. Usually they are not very pretty and are covered in mud and green stuff. The larger ones tend to be broken, but they make nice homes for hermit crabs when the snail dies.

The crown conch shell, sometimes called king’s crown, is recognizable by it’s pointy ridges and horizontal stripes. When cleaned up, it’s a beautiful specimen. When found in the wild, it may only be recognized by the points along the top of the swirls.

While visiting the intracoastal waterway (Indian River) backwater area this summer, I saw many crown conch shells in a variety of sizes. They were often inhabited, not by the snail that made them, but by a hermit crab.

Many years ago my kids had hermit crabs as pets. This was mostly due to the fact that my daughter wanted to have one of every kind of animal on earth as her pet. We had to buy gravel to put in a small container for the crab and we had to provide empty seashells for it to move into when it grew.

Now I wonder how the hermit crabs we had as pets lived at all, since the ones I saw in the wild stay completely under water. And it’s salt water. They are walking all over the shallows and could be in deeper water too I suspect. Apparently, after learning more about hermit crabs, there are different types, including my run in with the Giant Red Hermit Crab.

I would have come home with quite a nice collection of shells if not for the fact that hermit crabs had taken up residence in every one available!

Besides the beautiful striped crown shell, I found pear whelks and lightning whelks. The unique round shark’s eye was another I couldn’t collect. You can’t see the hermit crabs, but they are tucked down inside these shells.

Crown conch and shark’s eye postcard — Buy this image as a postcard in my Seashells by Millhill store.

Then, I finally found a crown shell with the snail inside (photo below). I took it out of the water for a moment to snap a photo and then I put him back. One day his shell will most likely be a hermit crab home.

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The Crown Conch (Melongena corona) seashell, sometimes called a King’s Crown , is one I see often when out on the islands beach-combing. Because of it’s distinctive pointy spikes around the outer swirls of the shell, I can easily recognize it.

crown conch seashell — Crown conch with abundance of spiky points all around

It’s a pretty shell with horizontal brown, reddish or gray, and off-white stripes on the adults. I have not seen a living crown conch. Juvenile shells can be other colors like the purple-blue one below – what a beauty!, and the tan one at the end of this post.

blue crown conch — Blueish-purple juvenile crown conch shell

Usually, when I see them, the colors are partially obscured by slime – as are most of the shells I find. The part of the shell that has been dragging along the sand is most colorful.

crown conch shell — Crown conch underwater – look closely and see the hermit crab carrying it along

This recent find stood out to me because of all those spikes! This is really a lot, compared to the ones I usually find (photos further down the page).

Juvenile crown conchs will not have those big spikes, but will grow them later on. I found a small one (photo below) but it had a hermit crab inside. So it will never grow up. Hermit crabs don’t kill mollusks that make the shells, but they never miss an opportunity to take possession of an empty shell!

hermit crab in juvenile crown conch shell — Juvenile crown conch (I believe) with hermit crab inside

Once the mollusk dies, hermit crabs move in. In the area where I fish and beach-comb the bottom is sometimes mucky, and that carries over to the shells. Often they are not pretty. Slime and even oysters can be growing inside, or barnacles on the outside.

Screen Shot 2017-11-21 at 6.51.17 PM — Home to a hermit crab

The huge shell below was one I collected because it was empty. It is broken and worn and the mollusk was obviously old when he died. He’d had plenty of time to create this oversized shell. Max size of the crown conch is 5 inches, and this one measured 6 inches plus. Because it’s not very pretty, it now has a home in my garden. Empty ones can be cleaned, but I didn’t go nuts with this broken one. The green and black slime fades away once the shell sits in the hot sun.

huge crown conch — Huge, old crown conch shell – 6 inches

As you can see in many of the photos on this page, the spikey shells also have some spikes near the base of the shell.

Screen Shot 2017-11-21 at 6.51.25 PM — Spikes top and bottom

I live in central Florida on the East coast. Over on the Gulf coast lives a lucky lady who gets to see some awesome seashell happenings.
Here’s a video of baby King’s Crown shells hatching.