Seashells in the Snow

Happy 2015 everyone! This is my first post of the year and I decided to do something winter-related... with seashells of course.

Luckily, last week, we had a nice snow fall in Maryland and a snow day at school!!!!!

 

So I decided to take some shells out to play in the snow.

 

 

Here are some of my shells; they are sitting on some handmade toadstools of mine. From front to back: a Lettered Olive, a Banded Tulip, a Florida Fighting Conch, and a Lightning Whelk.

 

Here's a close-up. The Lettered Olive is a shell that I commonly find in North Carolina (click here for my post on Oak Island, NC) and of course, on Sanibel. These mollusks prey on Coquinas in the surf zone, where the waves roll up on the sand. However, Lettered Olives will also scavenge if they get the chance.

 

Moving on....

 

Did you know that shells grow on trees??? Well they do, at least in my backyard, that's the case. :D

 

Here is my beautiful Lightning Whelk. I found it in Fort Lauderdale three years ago. I simply love the yellow-orange colors of this guy- it's a treat to photograph, and even more so, to own!

And here's another photo of my Lightning Whelk in the snow. Lightning Whelks live in the sandy shallows, pretty close to shore.

 

More shells in the trees! Florida Fighting Conch in the front and a Banded Tulip farther back. Banded Tulips sometimes fall prey to their larger relative, the True Tulip. I've found lots of these shells on Sanibel!

 

And here are some more shells in the snow. Florida Fighting Conchs get their name from occasional fights that burst out between rival males. However, they don't all fight in between themselves: if you pick one up, be ready for the mollusk to come out and start trying to hit you with its foot and pointy operculum (it happened to me :D). 

 

I hope that your mood has been lifted by my shells in the snow!

 

Have fun,

Yaroshelllava :D

Identification of some Exotic Shells

Howdy guys!!!!
As promised, I started IDing some of the shells that the anonymous donor gave me. Most of them are from the Indo-Pacific.
This was much harder, as I'm not familiar AT ALL with shells from that side of the world. But, who doesn't love a challenge? We all do. :D

Let's start with the cowries....

 

 

First up, the Eyed Cowrie. These guys are from the Indo-Pacific and their habitat consists of coral reefs. Named for the dots and splotches on the top of the shell that resemble "eyes".

 

 

The Tiger Cowrie also lives in the Indo Pacific. They are fairly common and well-known. You can find lots of these in tourist shops. If you look closely, you can see a faint, chestnut-colored line at the right of that shell. This line indicates where the edges of the mollusks mantle meet.

 

I always thought that the bottom side of Cowrie shells looked like a grin. Although, as you saw this shell is spotted, all-black specimens have been found. As well as giant specimens that were bigger than the standard 3.5 inch size.

 

Moving on from cowries, we come to the Spider Conch. This is the Arthritic Spider Conch that is found in East Africa. It resembles the Chiragra Spider Conch of the Indo- Pacific but is much smaller. It's 6 inches long, while the Chiragra Spider Conch is 10 inches long.

 

These mollusks also inhabit coral reefs. They are found fairly often.

 

Another Conch- yet this one can be found closer to home. The West Indian Fighting Conch. It looks similar to the Florida Fighting Conch as you will see in the next picture, but it is found further south, in the Carribean.

A comparison of the Fighting Conch. Florida Fighting Conch on the top, West Indian Fighting Conch on the bottom.

 

As you can see, the main difference is the whorls or knobs. The knobs of the West Indian Fighting Conch are much sharper and more pronounced, than of its Floridian counterpart.

 

The Clear Sundial. This mollusk is found in the Indo-Pacific. It has a low spire, and a flat base. It lives in the sand in shallow water.

 

And that is all for today, my friends. I have many more shells and fossils that I need to ID. So I need to go and get that done.

 

See y'all later,

Yaroshelllava :D

Cleaning you Shells

 

 

Hi guys! So I'm gonna do a quick post about cleaning your seashells today. I want to apologize beforehand for the first three pictures- I took screenshots from my Instagram because I couldn't find the original images.

Oh and by the way, I update my Instagram way more often than this blog because it's quicker to do, so if you want a daily fix of shells, you can follow my Instagram.

 

But let's move on from social networks and get back to shells!!!!!!!!!

 

 

So in order to clean your shells you should soak them overnight in a 7/8 water and 1/8 bleach bath. I used the regular laundry.

 

 

You put your shells into the bleach bath and let them soak for 24 hrs. Then, using a small screwdriver, you can get all the barnacles of.

Now, as you can see from the two photos above, I put ALOT of shells into the two containers, so the bleach bath did not really soak through the upper shell layers into the lower ones and they were not as clean and nice, as the ones on top. So you might want to clean your shells in smaller portions.

 

 

Here's a photo of one of my monster Florida Fighting Conchs. The bleach bath cleaned up the color nicely and also softened up the barnacles quite a bit. I got all of the barnacles off, after taking the "after" photo.

 

I wanna warn you all, that sea urchins should not be put in bleach baths, nor old crab claws. This beach bling will get soaked and fall apart. Same with operculums.

Also, I found that my Chestnut Turbans became bleak after the bleach baths, not nice and cleaned up, so maybe I should have put them in for a shorter time.

 

After you're done with the bleach, you can pour it in the toilet. Some people use muriatic acid (Which I understand is a form of hydrochloric acid) to make their shells even brighter and more colorful after the bleach bath. But I don't, because one- HCl is dangerous stuff to have around the house, and two- the muriatic acid apparently harms the shell by destroying some of the calcium carbonate that makes up the shell. However, muriatic acid does bring dramatic and beautiful results, so it's up to you whether you want to use it or not.

 

And that's all I have to say on the subject of shell cleaning.

Next, I want to show you my one, and probably only, freak shell!!!!!!!!

 

 

It's a Scotch Bonnet- and notice that it has not one lip but two!!! Woaaahhh! Cool, huh?

 

Here's another view of the same shell. I have no idea how this guy got its deformity, but it adds to the shells mystery... I found this Scotch Bonnet in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

 

And here is a photo of a perfect, not deformed Scotch Bonnet. I found this one in Fort Lauderdale too. These guys are members of the Helmet family and range from North Carolina to Texas and Brazil. They feed on sea urchins and sand dollars.

I've always loved these adorable shells, and look forward to finding more.

 

And this brings us to an end of another entry. But first, I wanted to tell you, that one of my blog reader (this means you guys!!!!) sent me a bag of exotic shells and fossils. I am in the process of identifying and researching them and I hope to finish doing that soon and posting several more entries for you guys. So thanks very much for that unknown donor, who wished to remain anonymous!!!!!!

 

Bye y'all,

Lava of Ocean Dawn :D

 

P.S. If you guys want me to do a post on a specific shell topic, please comment below and I will try to fulfill your wishes. :)

Let's Get Back to Bowman's Beach!! (Sanibel Island #6)

 

I decided to do another post today after making my post on shark teeth. Please enjoy this burst of diligence, because I don't know when I'll do another post... :P

So here is Sanibel Island part 6.

 

I left all of you guys with a small hook as I got to Bowman's Beach.

I came in time for the evening low tide.

 

There was a shell line on the shore...

....but I found most of my shells in the water, in the surf.

There were a few shellers there already.  I headed to the south of the island first.

My first find was this live juvie Florida Fighting Conch who I left alone, safely in the water.

Then... I hit TREASURE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A big Gaudy Nautica!!!!!!!! It's every bit and even more beautifuller than this picture!!!!!!

About 1.5 inches long- I was ecstatic!!!!!!!!!

I stayed at the beach for about an hour and half to two hours.

Here's the inside of my shelling bag.

Do you see that Florida Cone???????? That was another treasure!!!!!!

I also found a lot of Calico Crabs- I really like those guys and for some reason I find most of mine on Bowman's.

 

Well that's it for today. My diligence is wearing of....

 

See ya sometime (hopefully) soon........

Yaroshelllava :D 

Fantasizing about Florida.

Last year, March 2013, my family and I went to Sanibel Island, FL for a week of vacation.
Sanibel Island is the #1 spot for shelling in the US! Now you can see why I desperately wanted to go there.
So, after several years of trying to persuade my parents to take us there, they agreed.
That week in March was heavenly!
I loved the island, the beaches, the biking trails and most importantly....
THE SHELLS!!!!!
Here's a glimpse of some of the shells that I collected:

You can see the HUGE Saw-toothed Pen Shell, the Atlantic Giant Cockles, the Whelks and the Banded Tulips.

The rest of the shells I just kind of heaped there because I'm not really neat... ;D

Anyway, this was my second time in Florida because in November 2012 we had gone to Fort Lauderdale.

And now!!!!!! We're going to Sanibel AGAIN!!!!!!!!!

Yep, in a little over a month I'll be on the darling island again.

I can't wait!

But in the mean time, I want to show you guys some of my pictures from last year....

 

This guy here is a live Florida Fighting Conch. The reason for their name is their pretty aggressive personality. When I was holding this guy he kept hitting me with his foot and claw-like operculum (trap-door, you can see it at the bottom of the picture). But I managed to get this cute photo of him before returning him to the water. :D

 

Now this guy here is burrowing into the sand, but I don't think he ever got any further. Out of the hundreds of live Florida Fighting Conchs that were strewn on the beach at low tide, lots of them were in the position that you see here.

 

Next is the Florida Horse Conch. This, here shell is the largest gastropod in North America and the second largest ( after the Australian Trumpet) in the world. This shell has been on my "To Find" list ever since I first saw it in a shell book, but I only got to find one last year.

But it was alive, so I put it back in the water.

On Sanibel Island it's illegal to take home any live shell, sea urchin, sand dollar or sea star. But even if it was legal, I would have never taken this guy home.

I 'd much rather it stay alive.

So this year I'm hoping for a nice big empty Horse Conch to take home.

 

 

                                             This is another picture of the same shell. Right after I took this photo, the Conch spit water at my camera. Thankfully, the camera was fine. Horse Conchs hunt on other large gastropods such as Tulip Shells and Lightning Whelks. They get their prey by grabbing the other mollusks operculum and holding it tightly while eating.

 

Well that's it for today. I gotta go now.

But don't be sad, there will definitely be more posts on Sanibel Island in the next few days.

 

See ya soon!

Lava of Ocean Dawn :D