"Sea snails"

fatpuffer · #1 08-29-2005, 01:25 AM

I was at WEM today and in the chinatown section (T&T market), they had some live fish and shellfish. I saw some sea snails for sale and they were 4.99 per lb. live and crawling all over.

Anybody know what kind these are? they are in cold water...kinda looked like escargot snail but it salt water.

Just curious.

Thanks

js

Petcrazy · #2 08-29-2005, 01:32 AM

Margarita snails???

Samw · #3 08-29-2005, 01:55 AM

Maybe Tegula funebralis. I saw them at Granville Island Live Lobster place and they had the name on it. I forgot if that was the same name or not.

http://www.lanecc.edu/science/zonation/turban.htm

http://people.wwc.edu/staff/cowlda/K...unebralis.html

Lots of websites say that they can live over 80-100 years.

http://oceanlink.island.net/oinfo/in.../mollusca.html

http://www.johnharveyphoto.com/Botan...ckTurbans.html

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rs/index.php

"Among their many interesting attributes, many marine snails have impressively long life spans. I have counted over 120 annual growth rings on some specimens of Tegula funebralis, a temperate water species. This species is one of the three or four species of Trochoideans collected from cool water areas of Baja California and unethically sold to gullible, or informed, aquarists as a reef aquarium animal under the delightfully ambiguous name of "margarite or margarita snail. Tegula funebralis has a high thermal tolerance for an animal that lives in cold water areas (it ranges northward from Baja and is common in the British Columbian and Alaskan intertidal zones). They normally live a small fraction of one percent of their normal life span, or only a few months, in reef aquaria. Putting these animals in a reef aquarium is both unethical and immoral."

fatpuffer · #4 08-29-2005, 02:06 AM

Looks like a periwinkle snail.

Samw · #5 08-29-2005, 02:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fatpuffer

Looks like a periwinkle snail.

Yeah, I think that's the name I saw at Granville Island. So that's it then.

fatpuffer · #6 08-29-2005, 02:42 AM

Is it still unethical to buy the snails (meant for human consumption) to try and see if it will live in a tank? It is either live for a bit and die or boiled to death?!

Js