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Phylum Mollusca > Class Gastropoda > Family Trochidae
Orange-mouth top shell snail
Chrysostoma paradoxum
Family Trochidae
updated Sep 2020

Where seen? This snail is sometimes seen on rocky areas near living reefs.

Features: 2.5cm. Shell thick heavy, quite spherical with a pointed tip. Shell smooth, pattern of mottled shades of white and pastel colours with spiralling fine lines. Opening bright orange. Operculum, thin, made of a horn-like material with concentric rings, yellow. The flexible operculum allows the animal to withdraw deep into the coils of the shell. Hopefully, safe from prying claws of hungry crabs. Body pale, mantle smooth (not fringed with long tentacles). Large foot and a pair of long tentacles at the head.

Pulau Jong, Apr 13

Orange-mouth top shell snails on Singapore shores
On wildsingapore flickr

Acknowledgements
Grateful thanks to Chim Chee Kong for identifying this snail.

Links
  • Chrysostoma paradoxum in SeaBase Life: Technical fact sheet.
  • Labio monodont (Monodontia labio) in the Gastropods section by J.M. Poutiers in the FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes: The Living Marine Resources of the Western Central Pacific Volume 1: Seaweeds, corals, bivalves and gastropods on the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) website.

References

  • Tan Siong Kiat and Henrietta P. M. Woo, 2010 Preliminary Checklist of The Molluscs of Singapore (pdf), Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research, National University of Singapore.
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