Tiger cowrie

The tiger cowrie (Cypraea tigris) is a large Indo-Pacific sea snail with a heavy, glossy, spotted shell that the animal keeps polished by wrapping its mantle over it. Watching that mantle flow out and cover the shell is genuinely worth seeing. It is sold as a clean-up animal and it does graze algae, but the honest description of an adult tiger cowrie is a large, strong grazer that goes where it likes.

Aquarium care

• Grows large for a marine snail, well past 8 cm, and is heavy in proportion.
• Grazes algae when small, but larger specimens are known to eat sponges and can damage soft corals and anemones.
• Not reliably reef safe. Do not add one to a display built around delicate corals.
• Strong enough to dislodge frags, rock and equipment as it moves.
• Largely nocturnal, spending daylight hours tucked into the rockwork.
• Sensitive to copper-based medication; drip acclimate on arrival.

Best suited to a fish-only tank with live rock, or a robust marine system where the rockwork is stable and there are no prized sessile invertebrates. It is a poor match for a mixed reef, and we would rather you knew that before it moves in.

Stock rotates with each shipment, and livestock is available for local pickup at our Lethbridge store. See the saltwater collection.