What is this? Found in Anilao, Philippines

cleomagic · Apr 30, 2018

Was diving in Anilao, Philippines, last week, and ran across this on a night dive. It looks to be a snail, of some kind, and was trying to figure out what the behavior is... Mating? Moving from one shell to another? I have other pictures from different views, if needed

CuzzA · Apr 30, 2018

Just a guess, but it looks like a snail (possibly hermit crab) is eating the scallop.

RyanT · Apr 30, 2018

It's a murex snail (on the left) and it is laying eggs. In the foreground you can see the operculum of the live murex snail. It appears as if it started laying the eggs in the bivalve shell and then moved away. Many gastropod snails need a hard substrate to attach their eggs to, so it looks like the empty bivalve shell provided that hard substrate there on the sand.

Very, Very cool finding...thanks for sharing!

RyanT · Apr 30, 2018

Oh yeah, and can you post another view?

CuzzA · Apr 30, 2018

RyanT:
It's a murex snail (on the left) and it is laying eggs. In the foreground you can see the operculum of the live murex snail. It appears as if it started laying the eggs in the bivalve shell and then moved away. Many gastropod snails need a hard substrate to attach their eggs to, so it looks like the empty bivalve shell provided that hard substrate there on the sand.

Very, Very cool finding...thanks for sharing!

Well, that is just a crazy picture, right? My odds were fifty fifty. Everything in the ocean is either eating or breeding.

RyanT · Apr 30, 2018

Yeah, snails are freaking cool. Oh yeah, and many marine snails can live 50+ years!

cleomagic · May 1, 2018

RyanT:
Oh yeah, and can you post another view?

Thank you for the info! How cool! Had not seen anything like this, before.... I do have other pictures - will post when I am back on that machine, later today.

Thanks again!