How I Store My Shells

Shelling is fun an exciting and it's hard to control yourself whilst collecting shells. But, all of a sudden, your vacation is over and you're sitting at home with a bag or two of shells that need to be sorted and stored somehow. 

Everyone's been there! So in case any of you are struggling right now or have struggled with finding the containers for your shells, I've decided to show you what containers I use to sort and store my shells!

Here's my biggest shell box. I got it at AC Moore and I think that it's supposed to be used for beads or other small things. I like this box because you can move the little plastic walls around to make the compartments what ever size you need them to be. As you can see in the picture above, my Florida Fighting Conchs take up more room than my Alternate Tellins or Augers.

I got this little shell with removable containers at Walmart. The boxes are sturdy and will protect your fragile shells like False Angel Wings and beach beach bling like Sea Urchins. They have lids that are pretty well secured.

This is my box for my minis. I got it at AC Moore, too and it's definitely a box to hold beads. It has two big boxes (in the middle) and around 40 medium boxes (around the sides) and finally 20 tiny boxes (the ones closest to the front). It's a good sturdy case, but it can be a little hard to close the little containers sometimes.

Here's an Identification Box that I made out of an old Candy box! I cut a hole in the top of the box and taped a page protector onto it so that I could look at my shells. This is a good idea for display.

Another candy box turned into a sorting box. I use this guy to store my sharks teeth, sting ray plates and other fossils.

And finally, if you don't have any boxes, then you can always resort to the standard Ziploc bags as I sometimes do.

Drawer #1

Drawer #2

Now that you're done sorting your shells, you can stack them in a drawer, like I did above!

Happy shell sorting everyone!

See you soon,

Yaroshelllava :)

P.S. Exactly one month til I'm on Sanibel again, can't wait! Stay warm everyone! 😊

Snow Day Shells

So today we had no school!!!!!!!!!!
YAHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I spent the day relaxing at home and going sledding with my friends.
While at home, I decided to do some more shell sorting, you all saw the state of my collection.
And lo and behold, I did manage to sort out a few more shells. Here they are:....

The Corrugate Jewel Box. I don't have enough info on this shell yet....

The Cayenne Keyhole Limpet.

The reason that they are called "keyhole" limpets is because the holes in the shells are shaped like keyholes.

And the Striped Falselimpet.

Limpets are gastropods that live on rocks in the tidal zone. They can move with the help of their foot and feed on algae with their tongue-like radula. The hole in the top of their shells allows the limpets to pass exhaust from their lungs, while falselimpets breathe air and are found above the tide.

 

The Antillean Nerite. As you can see it lacks "teeth" on its inner lip. This helped me distinguish it from the next shell, a Four-toothed Nerite. It is also called the Lightning Nerite. This shell can be fond in brackish water in sheltered areas.

Finally, the Four-toothed Nerite!(or Variegated Nerite)!

I know this picture isn't the best, in reality it's much easier to see this species four "teeth" on its inner left. But you can still see them if you look at the left image.

This mollusk is commonly found with the Bleeding Tooth in areas of high wave action, on expose rocks. It lays its eggs on the same rocks in dome-shaped capsules.

 

Well that's it!

See ya soon!
Lava of Ocean Dawn :D

The Shell Sorting Hat!

So, my second post for today: Shell ID and sorting.
The Shell Sorting Hat ( a reference to Harry Potter!!!) are my new shell ID books.
I decided to sort out some of my identityless (is that even word?) shells.
Here is half of my shell collection in its usual disarray:

As you can see its not that neat.

Here is one of my more neat display cases made out of an old candy box. :D CREATIVITY!!!!

 

Some more shells, some sorted, some not.

Here are two containers of my unsorted, unidentified shells!

Let's get started!!!

So finally I discovered what these two were: Common Dove Shells! They were about 3/4 of an inch long. You can tell that these are the Common Dove Shell because of the little teeth on its lip ( on the right picture).

Next, the Giant Coquina Clam, or Great False Coquina, or Giant False Coquina.

Lots of names. These two were about 1.5 inches long and as you can see, look a lot like the common Variable Coquina.

The Antillean Lima!!! Not sure where I found these, but I was really glad to finally find out what they were.

The American Carrier Shell. We already met before, but I just found a separate little box for it today. :D

And the Nutmeg. This is the only specimen of this tiny shell that I have found so fat. It's not in the best condition, but I hope to find more this year. This guy was found on Sanibel Island in March 2013. These mollusks feed on soft-bodied animals buried in the sand.

 

Well that's it for today. Look for more shell sorting and ID post in the future!

 

See ya soon,

Lava of Ocean Dawn :D

An Intro to Shells

My first real post will be about shells.
( I promised something ocean related, right?)

Shells are animals that are called mollusks. In all there are five types of mollusks:

Gastropods, Bivalves, Tusk Shells, Chitons and Cephalopods.

Gastropods are the mollusks with a single external shell. They are the big conchs and whelks, as well as the small periwinkles.

 

This shell here is a Banded Tulip. As you can see its alive. The operculum (trap door) is slightly open and you can see the mollusks body inside. I found it on Sanibel Island at low tide, last March.

 

Next, Bivalves.

These mollusks are kept inside by two shells that are hinged together. Examples are scallops, cockles and quahogs.

 

 

Atlantic Giant Cockles can be up to 5 inches across when adult. In the photo above you can see both shells and the animal inside. The round hole is probably the breathing tube.

 

Tusk Shells, well, look like elephants tusks. I've found them before, but they are so fragile that I never ended up bringing them home. Sadly, I don't have pictures of them.

 

Same with chitons. Chitons are actually made of eight valves that are surrounded by a girdle. They can be pretty small and I have NEVER found one. Chitons are on my "To Find" list.

 

Finally, cephalopods. Only about half a dozen different species from this class have an outer shell. The most well known are the nautiluses. Other members of this class are the squid, octopus and cuttlefish.

Cephalopod shells, such as Argonauts are actually egg cases. But they usually only wash up on shore after storms. Again, these are on my "To Find" list.

 

As a last note, some of you might ask what shells are on my "To Find" list.

Well, all of them, actually!

I have a pretty big shells collection at home, but most of the shells are from the North American East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico. In short, all the shells that I have not yet found and brought home are on my "To Find" list.

 

Happy Wednesday!

Yaroslava :D