Cloth-of-gold Cone

Conus textile

Spot the Cloth-of-gold Cone in Okinawa, Queensland, and French Polynesia. Warm-water reefs, 23-29 °C. ID tips and best dive sites inside.

Year-round

best time

Hard to spot

findability

232

sites

3/5

appeal

Safety warning

This animal carries a powerful venom delivered by a bite or a harpoon-like sting, and it can be fatal. Never handle it or pick up its shell, even one that looks empty.

If you're stung

Venomous sting

What it feels like: Often a small, almost painless prick or bite that is easy to miss. The real danger comes minutes later: numbness spreading from the wound, tingling around the mouth, then progressive muscle weakness.
First aid: This is a life-threatening emergency. Get the person out of the water and call emergency services at once. Press firmly on the wound and bind the whole limb with a firm bandage (pressure immobilisation), keeping it still. If breathing stops, start rescue breaths and keep them going: the venom paralyses the breathing muscles while the person often stays aware, and people recover fully with breathing support.
When to get help: Call emergency services immediately, before any symptoms appear if you can. There is no antivenom; survival depends on early, sustained rescue breathing and hospital ventilation until the venom wears off. Do not wait to see whether symptoms develop.

General first-aid guidance, not a substitute for professional medical care. In an emergency, call your local emergency number.

How to identify it

A medium-sized cone shell patterned with overlapping triangular or tent-like markings in warm gold, brown, and cream, arranged in rows across a roughly cylindrical shell that narrows sharply toward the tip. The overall effect resembles woven brocade fabric, which is exactly where the common name comes from. Look for the broad, flattened shoulder near the spire and a relatively smooth surface compared to knobbed or ridged cone relatives.

Behaviour

Cloth-of-gold Cones are most often spotted partially buried in sand or rubble, or tucked beneath coral slabs and rubble during daylight hours. Like most cone snails, they are more active at night, so a torch-lit reef walk is often more productive than a daytime dive. When found, the animal is typically stationary or moving very slowly; it rarely reacts dramatically to a diver's presence.

Worth knowing

Despite the data flagging this species as not dangerous to divers in the context of a typical encounter, Conus textile is one of the relatively small number of cone snails known to carry a potent venom delivered via a harpoon-like tooth called a radula. It hunts other molluscs rather than worms or fish, and its venom is adapted accordingly. Handle with care or, better still, do not handle it at all.

best time to see it

No clear seasonal peak emerges from the sighting data, so this is effectively a year-round species across its range. It is consistently found in water temperatures of roughly 23 to 29 °C, meaning any visit to its tropical and subtropical Indo-Pacific haunts can produce an encounter.

Commonly confused with

Reef neighbours a diver could mistake it for. Use the identification notes above to tell them apart.

Geographer Cone

Conus geographus

Where to see Cloth-of-gold Cone

Most logged across the Indo-Pacific, with Okinawa and the wider Ryukyu Islands of Japan standing out as the strongest concentration of sightings by a wide margin. Queensland in Australia and Tahiti in French Polynesia are also reliable hunting grounds, and divers in Fujairah (UAE), Kwajalein Atoll (Marshall Islands), and the Visayas in the Philippines report it regularly too. If you are specifically targeting this species, Japan's Okinawa Islands give you the best statistical odds.

Mapping where Cloth-of-gold Cone is logged…

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Frequently asked questions

Okinawa, Japan is by far the most-logged location, followed by Queensland in Australia, Tahiti in French Polynesia, Fujairah in the UAE, Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, the Visayas in the Philippines, Viti Levu in Fiji, and Hawaii. It is a wide-ranging Indo-Pacific species found across more than a dozen countries.

Sightings are spread throughout the year with no obvious seasonal peak, so there is no single best month. It favours water temperatures between roughly 23 and 29 °C, which describes tropical and subtropical Indo-Pacific reefs year-round. Night dives improve your chances as the animal is more active after dark.

Look for a cone-shaped shell with a distinctive pattern of interlocking golden-brown triangles or tents arranged in rows across a cream background, resembling woven fabric. The shell has a broad shoulder near the spire and tapers to a point. That tent pattern is the key underwater field mark.

It is not typically regarded as a serious threat during a normal dive, but Conus textile does possess a venomous radula (a harpoon-like tooth) capable of delivering a sting. Fatalities have been recorded in the scientific literature from handling this species. The sensible rule is to look without touching, as with all cone snails.

Sighting data from logged dives places it firmly in the rare-to-uncommon range; most sites that record it do so infrequently. It is also cryptic by habit, resting under rubble or partially buried in sand. Targeted night dives in Okinawa or Queensland give you the best realistic shot at finding one.