www.cowries.info

[Notocypraea]

Cypraea collectors...
what are the species that you most commonly observe in flawed condition?
I know some species are more prone to flaws and certain area's produce more flawed shells but I'm just speaking generally?

From my experience...
1. Notocypraea angustata
- nearly always flawed from my experience
SA specimens generally better than Vic specimens
2. Zoila thersites & other southern friendii forms
3. Notocypraea comptoni
4. Zoila marginata
- never been able to collect a specimen from Perth area so far, all seen (~5 thus far) have been horribly flawed with chips/ growthlines!
5. Cypraea carneola
- 75+% of specimens I've observed insitu were quite badly flawed
6. Cypraea vitellus
- specimens I saw in Vietnam were amazingly flawed. Also a high percentage of specimens I've observed elsewhere have been flawed.
7. Zoila venusta
8. Cypraea arabica
9. Cypraea tigris
- Gulf of Thailand specimens I have seen are nearly always flawed with nacre spots, algae etc.
10. Notocypraea piperita
with the exception of Port Phillip Bay specimens (best specimens I've generally seen).

http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/415/flawedypcomptonirp5.jpg
A typically flawed Notocypraea comptoni. Note the white growthlines!

Would be interested in other collectors observations.


Regards,
Simon

[felix]

In my opinion, reevei is by far the worst of them all

[Guest]

[ozcyp]

From observations in my area, cypraea xanthadon, cylindrica lenella and brevidentata fluctuans are very hard to get in gem condition. Xanthadon are usually very dark and close inspection must be done to be sure the shell is worthy of taking. They fade soon after to the usual mottled, greenish appearance.

This is a live cypraea xanthadon (with mantle up) which measured around 34mm from memory. The bottom photo shows a large female shell which has faded somewhat, compared to the smaller and fresh collected male shell (fully adult).

Iain

[felix]

Hi Iain, nice to see you on the forum.

Simon, yes, I found a superbe black gem angustata in Tasmania, but also many others that were really flawed. I guess I just just damn lucky.

[Sleepycat]

[Notocypraea]

[Guest]

Hi, I'm new to this forum...

To my opinion, other usually flawed species that did not have a citation here are:

mauritiana: does it exist a specimen with intact canals? I had one in my aquarium, even that specimen has got imperfect tips ... so it's not a matter of bad handling, like I thought yeras ago.

nivosa: I've seen very, very few specimen free of scars, growthlines and pattern anomalies.

stercoraria: the same as above

About the granulosity of fultoni massieri and hesitata: U know it's a natural aspect of these cowries... nonetheless, I'd like very much to get a shiny hesitata (a perfect fultoni, is out of question )

[domenico67]

Sorry, I writed the message above, I just forgot the log in...

I'm quite surprised the system allowed me to post...

Domenico

[rlutan]

Hello "domenico67",
absolutely on mauritianas!!. I have several "gem" mauritianas with perfect tips/canals, etc. I love mauritianas as they are very shiny with a nice dorsal pattern.You have to be lucky to find a perfect one and to be able to afford one. One recently sold at shellauction.net for over E300 I believe for a perfect specimen over 100mm.
Nivosas and stercorarias are tougher, especially the stercorarias.
I have several fultonis that are "not granulated" on the dorsum, so those shells do exist. They just command a much higher price of course. The ones you usually see at the shell shows are so granulated I cannot bear to see them.
I think hesitatas are generally non glossy from my little experience. Perhaps Felix can tell us why hesitatas and even teramachii neocaledonicas tend to be somewhat dull on the dorsum. Perhaps the depths and the lack of light has something to do with it. By the way, if you ever get a chance to go down in a mini sub, do it!!!. It is incredible how much life there is down there in the sandy bottoms in total darkness. I was lucky to go down to 1100 feet in Cocos island last summer and got to see amazing stuff. Well worth the money and damn near the best thing I have ever done in my life!!!.
Robert.
_________________
Caribbean seashells were what I collected in the 1980s when I was stationed in Puerto Rico with US. Navy. I had a few rare cowries then. Over the past 1 year I have started collecting cowries seriously again.

[Cribraria Kid]

Marginata are without doubt the most frustrating of shells to find, I have never found a true "gem"- always the tiniest of soft growth lines to detract from perfecion and please don't get me started on their amazing ability to have minute canal and marginal chips. I guess it goes with the habitat

Friendii- sometimes it's like somebody has gone down and taken a chisel to them.

Venustas- seem to be a lot more of the shallowater shells with large algae blotches in them ( certainly in some reefs close to the local industrial area) and the deep water shells seem to deliberately let small algal spots take hold, just to annoy me.
Other times, it seems they have evolved condiderably and have developed some sort of underwater sand blasting machine for their dorsums

Perhaps Felix is right with reevei-simply terrible and when the shell is actually quite good, Sleepycats comment about drilling comes to the fore.

Even rottnestensis on 1 particular patch (for some reason) can be simply not worth the effort. They develop small dorsal blisters (which may or may not polish out-honestly I don't know) but certainly results in a lot of well marked shells being returned. Another characteristic/typical flaw they have, is a small set of growth lines on the dorsum just above the labial margin where the pattern overlay occurs.

Notocypraea are a bit funny. Comptoni from the Esperance wharf although plain, can be of excellent quality. Yet it seems everywhere else I go the shells are prone to growth lines. Then again my Port Mcdonnell and Port Fairy notocyps are superb shells.

Helvola don't seem to be flawed too often
_________________
Cribraria Kid

[Notocypraea]

I think most cool/ temperate water cypraea have a reasonably high incidence of flawing.

When I dived in Tasmania to see Cypraea hesitata ~50% of specimens seen had quite bad sand blistering and some algal imperfections (probably a good thing really from a conservation point of view).

Agree re Marginata. Thus far from my limited diving off Perth I'm yet to collect a single specimen. I had to leave the ones I saw due to the bad flaws on them. I was however lucky enough to collect one of the two specimens I saw while diving off Albany.

Friendii agree especially with regard to canal chips. I've collected relatively few of the ones I've seen insitu. Even more so with friendii f. thersites. The vast majority I have seen have been badly flawed. I've never collected a true gem. In fact I find it hard to find any at F++ grade or better!

Venusta I have had better luck with. Still I haven't seen that many insitu really ~20. Some wicked growth flaws and algal flaws have been seen esp on the smaller rottenensis forms from Carnac & Rottnest Island. I was lucky enough to collect an amazing nr gem specimen from deep water (>25m) off Hillary's in 2007. Really one of the best ever shells I have found!

Reevei are hard to find full stop and I agree with the flaws. I did find a big beauty once in South Australia but it was just slightly young (how annoying!).

Notocypraea - Specimens from Port MacDonnell have from my experience the best quality specimen ratio of anywhere I have collected followed by Port Phillip Bay (Portsea), Victoria, Albany & DE Channel (Tasmania).

Port Fairy!!! I am amazed you have any quality specimens from there! How reliable is the data? Did you collect them yourself? Very hard to find notocypraea there and the ones I have seen have been terrible!

Still from my experience Notocypraea angustata from a 200Km radius of Melbourne is impossible to find in Gem condition. Best I have seen from all my years collecting is F++, normally F and just not worth collecting!
Even the specimen I collected from sponge in deeper water at the Port Phillip Bay heads (while looking great at 20m, developed growth lines on cleaning & drying! ).


Regards,
Simon

[cowryman3sai]

The most common seems to be growthmarks.Can it be caused by to rapid of growth.Scratches are obviously from heavy surf and coral.I would like to know more about the why's and depending on the species and like this topic move along a little,It's really a very nice subject. p.s.some species get bit by fish,tough life for some
_________________
Robert F.Grant lll in Salina,Kansas 67401 U.S.A. Check webshots.com and cypraea collectors are now on Facebook.com.It's extremely cool!!A must check.Been collecting for 45 years.

[Freaky Freak Collector]

Cypraea tigris in the Philippines, they have lots of aberrant populations down South.

[zoila]

Hello Friends,

I am new to this site & look forward to hearing from all those who share this great pastime in shell collecting.

Having dived numerous locations around W.A, I think the deep water venusta & candida vercoi are some of the most commonly flawed, mainly due to algae blemishes.Sometimes you may find a dozen specimens in a trip out & have only a couple without the algae. The shallow water venustas ,particularily around the south coast are by far the better condition specimens,providing they arent from turbulant areas.