Fighting Conch secretes defensive mucus?

[emjs777]

Anyone ever see this?

One of my peppermint shrimp just attacked my fighting conch. The conch jumped away, but not before secreting this ooze that distracted the shrimp and is now hanging off all of my rock and caulerpa. Really strange.

The conch got away safely and the shrimp just got a big chunk of...shrimp...to satisfy its needs.

 

[Len]

I've never seen or heard of this 8O Very interesting. What color was the secretion and was it thick?

 

[npaden]

Maybe the conch was simply sitting on some type of nasty decomposing something and the peppermint was just trying to get at it.

When the conch moved the nasty was uncovered and it might have appeared as if the conch release it?

Just a guess.

Nathan

 

[emjs777]

Actually, the peppermint was definitely going after the conch, it was reaching inside the shell quite aggressively.

I just did a google search for "conch, mucus, defense" and found a few sources saying that many mollusks secret mucus as a defense mechanism. The mucus tastes horrible and alters the appearance of the mollusk.

 

[emjs777]

As to the color of the mucus, it was clear to whitish, and it collected sand in it immediately. A lot of it was weighed down an stayed on the sandbed, but some floated away and was very stringy.

 

[Len]

I've heard of mollusks secreting compounds as a defensive mechanism, but this is the first I've heard a fighting conch do it I got to thinking if it was fecal matter; the shrimp scared the conch ..... well, you get the idea