Rochia nilotica

Rochia nilotica, also known as Tectus niloticus, is an herbivorous gastropod of the tropical Indo-Pacific. It nourishes of filamentous algae that grow on rocks and dead corals. Hence, when young grazes in the tidal zone, where the food abounds going down, when adult, up to about 20 m of depth. The shell may exceed the 16 cm with a diameter of 12 cm and being massive is quite suitable, collectors apart, to the buttons and fake pearls industry. Even if a good-sized adult may entrust a thousand of eggs to the current on the occasion of the wedding groups, the industrial levy of tons of shells per year has considerably reduced the members in many locations. Nowadays for commercial and re-population reasons they talk of caged farms in order to protect at least the young from the predators © G. Mazza