Batillaria's tenant - Part 2

In my last post from Florida, I had the picture of a Batillaria minima with a barnacle attached to its shell. That barnacle didn't give me an opportunity to photograph it. Subsequently, I collected a large number of live B. minima among which there were a few more snails with barnacles on their shells.

Whilst I was measuring and examining those snails, I kept them in a large container of sea water. The snails were moving around, climbing on the walls of the container. At one point, I noticed that one of the barnacles on one of the snails had its feeding appendages out. I quickly grabbed the camera and took a series of shots. Even though the pictures were taken thru a few centimeters of sea water, the appendages of the barnacle came out quite clear.


I have also noticed 2 other organisms besides barnacles that use the shells of B. minima as mobile bases for their homes. I will post about those in the future.