Weird snails at Changi

There were several snail surprises from the super low tide at Changi. Out of which some are not commonly seen and some unknown and thus weird to us.


One of the many snails found will be this conch snail from the Family Strombidae which I have no idea what species is this. I don't think shore explorers have seen this species before! Could it be a new record?

In fact, it is seems to be intermediate between the usual conches and the spider conch in terms of size. And the shiny underside of the shell is really a beauty. Too bad, these beautiful snails are badly poached to be sold as souvenirs.


Good thing that their upper side is "disguised" with algae and barnacle, making it not so obvious to predators and homosapiens.


Another rare conch snail will be this one that look similar to that found at Tanah Merah recently.


We thought it could be either Strombus succinctus or Strombus marginatus.


Well, taxonomy and identification requires a lot of expertises and skills which I don't have. Ria was wondering if this was not the usual Gong gong (Strombus canarium) since the shell doesn't seem to be thick.


Ah, finally I got to see this really pretty, yet tiny pink moon snail.


The body is colourful with a bright orange front portion, while the foot has a white margin and a pattern of intricate white bars and orange spots. I adore this most among the other moon snails.


Ria found yet another weird snail, a brownish maroon coloured moon snail that we have also not seen before. It seems to have an operculum but I don't know what is the U-shape furrow at its underside.


The usual moon snails were still around like this Ball moon snail (Polinices didyma)


Surprisingly I found a pair of these Oval moon snail (Polinices mammatus) at Changi as well. I don't think we have seen this species at our northern shores as they are usually found at Southern shores.

That's all for the assortment of moon snail surprises... Here's the next one!


I found the hermit snail again which I've seen before at Cyrene Reef too. But I am not too sure whether it is also Semicassis bisulcatum.

This cute snail has a very pretty shell and a siphon that acts like the nose of an elephant. It is able to use its body and foot to elevate itself for crawling. Very entertaining to observe this animal.

There are other usual snail suspects that are not so weird at Changi.


Like this nerite found at the rocky part.


This big and magnificent looking snail is the handsome Noble volute (Cymbiola nobilis).

Wow, that was quite a good assortment of snails found at Changi!