ZEBRA TOP SNAIL

white.tiger (57)in #nature • 6 years ago

The Zebra Top Snail is very common in south-eastern Australia, we see them everywhere at our local rock pools. They are a marine snail or mollusc and live in the intertidal rock pools and grow to around 2.5cm wide.
They come from the family of sea snails known as Trochidae or "top snails," because they look like spinning tops.
They are herbivores and feed on algae, interestingly, at certain times of the year the algae they eat contains a substance that excretes into their shell to form the dark stripes. No two zebra top snails have the same patterns on their shells, they are each unique little individuals, some have thin stripes and some have much thicker stripes.