Tiger Cowrie - Cypraea tigris - Cowrie Tiger

Tiger Cowrie - Cypraea tigris Taxonomy: Tiger Cowrie belongs to the Kingdom Animalia, Phylum Mollusca, Class Gastropoda, Order Mesogastropoda, Family Cypraeidae, Genus Cypraea and Species tigris.

Scientific names: The scientific name of Tiger Cowrie is Cypraea tigris.

Origin or natural range: Tiger Cowrie originates in the Indo-Pacific region including Zanzibar, Philippines and Hawaii.

Size: Cypraea tigris grows up to a size of around four to six inches.

Color: Tiger Cowrie occurs in black, brown, gray and white colors.

Aggression: Cypraea tigris is non-aggressive towards the marine aquarium invertebrates.

Compatibility: Tiger Cowrie is moderately reef compatible.

Venom status: Cypraea tigris is non-poisonous in nature.

Habit & Habitat: Tiger Cowrie is nocturnal in nature and therefore during the day time, it relaxes under some rocks, on reefs or on soft sponges in shallow waters, whereas it is active during night.

Hardiness: Cypraea tigris is very hardy in nature.

Morphology:

• The shell of Tiger Cowrie is shaped like an egg and has a spotted and shining surface.
• Cypraea tigris has a large and muscular mantle which is covered by numerous short nipples like structures, called papillae. The mantle of Tiger Cowrie normally covers the whole of shell in order to protect the shell’s interesting surface.
• The mantle regularly secretes shell to increase its size to keep up with the body growth of Cypraea tigris.
• The shell has an opening which is lined with sharp, teeth shaped structures. When disturbed, Tiger Cowrie withdraws itself completely into its shell and the opening is guarded by these protective structures.

Breeding:

• In its natural habitat, Cypraea tigris is generally found as mating pair.
• The eggs are hatched into larvae as the female Tiger Cowrie sits on her eggs.

Growth enabling environment in your marine aquarium: Your marine aquarium must meet the following environmental specifications to successfully host Cypraea tigris

Aquarium habit & habitat:

• Tank type: To host Cypraea tigris, you should have a reef type marine aquarium with a minimum water capacity of fifty gallons.
• Aquarium set-up:
• Your reef tank should have corals, Live Rocks and sand for Tiger Cowrie to hide in.
• Keep Cypraea tigris with starfish, sea urchins and tubeworms in the same aquarium.
• Temperature of water: Seventy-two to seventy-eight degrees.
• Specific gravity of water: 1.023 to 1.025.
• pH of water: 8.10 to 8.40.

Feeding & Nutrition:

• Diet: Tiger Cowrie is Carnivorous in feeding habit.
• Food content: The juveniles of Cypraea tigris eat algae and detritus while, the adults feed upon soft corals, sponges and anemones.
• Supplements: Supplement the food of Tiger Cowrie with the meaty bits of fish and mussel.

Breeding: Cypraea tigris does not successfully breed in a marine aquarium because of its long larval stage and the larva’s inability to cope up with captive environment.

Care:

• Tiger Cowrie is easy to maintain.
• Do not keep Cypraea tigris with Condylactis species.
• Nitrates and Copper in any form in your marine aquarium may prove lethal for Tiger Cowrie.
• Do not keep Cypraea tigris with aggressive and rough surfaced tank members as they may hurt the snail’s soft mantle.

Caution: Tiger Cowrie eats anemones, star fish and sea urchins. Therefore, do not keep very exclusive species of these in your marine aquarium as they may get killed by the snail.

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