The tower auger is a spire or tower with 12-19 twists. The skull has ribs or stripes that follow the turns and is typically gray-brown or reddish-brown. However, dead worn shells found on the beach can be much lighter in color. The tower auger lives half-buried in the seabed, but it makes a kind of recess so that the water can come down to the snail’s gills. The tower auger absorbs oxygen from the water and filters it simultaneously for food. The auger can be up to 6 cm. Small specimens can be confused with the small tower auger, but this one has a much more knotty surface pattern, and only becomes 10-12 mm long.
Did you know that:
Tower augers often appear as a “pest” in aquariums, where they come via aquarium sand or via the water supplied from the aquarium store.
