Sea snails of the Caribbean sea

Queen conch (Strombus gigas) Also known as the pink conch, this is the one and only! One of the most known sea snails of the Caribbean sea, mostly for the beautiful shell, and the famous conch chowder. The Queen conch is a endangered species but is becoming more abundant over time, as it is now illegal in some parts of the Caribbean to eat these snails, like the Florida keys. The shell is orange on the outside, and pink on the inside. It can measure up to 12 inches. The juveniles usually have long spines and lack the huge lip that the full grown Queen conchs have. To learn more, click here!

Rooster-tail conch (Strombus gallus) Also known as the Rooster conch, this is a rare species of conch snails, as it lives in deeper water. It is more frequent in the lower Caribbean. They are pretty colorful, as they have can be gray, orange, yellow, red, or brown. The shell can get up to 7 inches in length. It is probably called the Rooster-tail conch, because of its "tails". Speaking of tails, this conch shell can have one or two "tails", which are usually white, or orange. It has a quite big lip, but not as big as the Queen conch, or the Goliath conch.

Milk conch (Strombus costatus) This is another sea snail belonging to the strombidae family. It is entirely white, and sometimes a little orangish. It can be found in shallow water. The shells of these snails can reach up to 9 inches in length. The popluation of the Milk conch is starting to decline because it's highly sought after commercially. Like most other sea gastropods. It has a protective operculum (trapdoor) attached to its foot to protect the snail from any potential predators.

Hawk-wing conch (Strombus raninus) This is a common species in the upper, and middle caribbean sea. It has a medium size lip and many colorful patterns. it can be orange, white, yellow, red, brown, etc. The maximum size of the shell is 5 inches. Juveniles are sometimes confused with cone snails. One way to not cinfuse them is to look of there are some sort of spike/spike things on the top of the shell. If it does have them, its a conch snail, if it doesn't, it a cone snail. One quick way to identify a conch shell, is by looking if there are any stromboid notches on the bottom of the lip, stromboid notches are a are in the lip of the shell, where the snail has its eyes.

Goliath conch (Strombus goliath) This is a big species of true conch. It isn't actually native to the Caribbean, but actually to east brazil. It has been transported to the very southern point of the lower Caribbean. It is a extremely rare snail, and to find the shell of the Goliath conch on the beach you have to be very lucky. This snail is edible. It has a huge lip, which the juveniles lacking it. The shell is usually brown, while the snail's body is cream. This is one of the biggest snails from the genus Strombus, as it can measure up to 14.5 inches. It is an endangered species because of overexploitation. People kill for it not because of the edible flesh, but because of their beautiful shell.

West-Indian fighting conch (Strombus pugilis) This is a common species of snail that can be found throughout the whole Caribbean sea. It is similar to the Florida fighting conch, just the color is always light orange, and the spines are longer. Like the Florida Fighting conch, this snail lives in medium to deeper water. They are also cool to find on the beach!