Fighting Conch?

[marvida]

A few months ago I asked the LFS to try to get me a fighting conch. They ordered and received a "conch" with no species listed. When they put in their tank it dove into the sand so, hey, good enough for me.
It doesn't look exactly like some photos of fighting conchs I've seen, it seems to be smoother. It will climb on rocks but that is very rare. It shows up about every two weeks, and last night after lights out I was watching the tank & it popped up out of the sand like a breaching whale. Anyway, I took some photos & was wondering if anyone could give me a positive ID. It's shell is a little over 2 inches long.

 

[balashark21]

can you get a pic of its foot? also i think that is a nassarius snail. i ordered some from swf.com and they look like that not the pic in swf.com. i could be wrong. this is imho. hth

 

[marvida]

Nassarius don't get that big. I have a few of them also & the biggest one is less than 1/2" long. Next time I see this thing I'll try to get a photo of it's foot.
Thanks!
Ken

 

[balashark21]

also my conch has eyes on long stocks. the stocks are about an eighth of an inch long and have kina fleshy hooks. its hard to explain but it branches off halfway to the eyeball into another stock but the other stalk dosnt have an eye on it. my conch dose not burry itself. and cleans alot in the daytime...hmmm maby a queen? i know next to nothing about queen conches exept that they dont live long in captivity. hmmm. anyone else?

 

[sebae0]

i have a queen and yes their eyes are on the end of long stalks, i beleive they do pretty good in captivity bang guy has a large one and he's had it for a while now.
here's a pic of the eyes i got.

 

[sebae0]

oops forgot to add pic!

 

[marvida]

The one I have has the eye stalk thing happening to. It also has a plate like thing that it drags around and uses to close up the opening of the shell.

 

[balashark21]

hmm i guess he is a conch then. i cant positivly id it tho. sry i am pretty new to the hobby

 

[bang guy]

Can you get a picture of the aperature? And also one like Sebae's.
It resembles a Buccinid Whelk but I can't really tell anything from the top of the snail.

 

[marvida]

Next time I see it I'll do some more detailed photos of it's anatomy. It appears to do what it's paid to do, keeps the sand pretty clean, doesn't bother anything.
Thanks for the help! I'll get back to you.

 

[bwmichael21]

i have a strawberry conch and it is always in the sand, shell looks nothing like yours but alot of times i'll see it, top of its shell and eyeballs sticking just out of the surface the sand