Deer Cowrie - Macrocypraea cervus

Deer Cowries are a fascinating species, but are rarely seen in the hobby. Like all cowries, it has a very non-traditionally shaped shell. Instead of the traditional pointed or rounded whorl, the opening goes in a line across the bottom. Also, unlike most snails, cowries extend a fleshy mantle over their shell at time to keep it clean and polished. The Deer Cowrie was named for its coloration, which resembles a fawn with tank on the top, white on the bottom, and speckles throughout.        

Care

At 3-4" when fully grown, this is undoubtedly a LARGE species. As such, it requires plenty of room to move and graze on the rock and glass. Like large Turbo Snails, it is very likely to become a bulldozer of unsecured coral frags in the reef aquarium. There's not much information available in the trade about this species, but there are a few anecdotes of them sampling zoas, so they should be treated as reef safe with caution. As with other invertebrates, they're intolerant of copper and rapid changes in water conditions, so should be acclimated carefully.     

Diet

Deer Cowries live on a diet of filamentous and film algaes as well as sponges.