The Art Business is Moving at a Snail's Pace!

I am in the wrong business!   I should definitely give up this "starving artist" gig and do something a bit more lucrative!  This occurred to me while I was sitting on the pier catching catfish.  I was wasting away a perfect afternoon and had no desires to head back to the house or gardens.  Catfish were good!  They are one of those fish that we do not eat so lucky for them, it is catch and release..most of the time!  If needed as bait for the crab traps, a few are kept.  This afternoon, though, things were A-OK and the catfish were tossed back in the murky water.  Just between you and me..I would have most likely released all of these as they were very full of eggs.  I figure that the more I toss back when they are in this condition, the more I can catch at a later date!  Even though, we do not eat them, they are still fun to catch.  But..back to my lamenting about the lack of business in the art world.  As I sat there on the pier, I noticed a billion and one (or so it seemed) small snails clinging to the pier posts.

These snails are Olive Nerites or Olive Snails.  The Nerites are small snails in the Neritidae Family. They are in great abundance each year and will cling to anything that is in the water more than five minutes!  Each time I pull up the crab traps, you can hear the steady clicking of their shells as they drop from the wire and hit the boards.  They, then, move at a snail's pace (hehe pun intended!) across the plank before dropping back into the water.  After spying the snails, I came up to the house and did a bit of research.  THOSE snails are expensive!!!  I am supposing that they are popular in saltwater aquariums or something since I cannot see spending big dollars for a snail for any other reason.  After reading, I found that they are desirable as aquarium creatures since they eat tons of algae!  Aha!  These critters eat the slime that messes up the fish tank!  Yeah, I can see why that might be worth the hefty price!  When pricing the mollusks, the cheapest ones I found went for two dollars!  Others were "on sale" at two for seven dollars!  Can you imagine some tiny thing about the size of a pea costing so incredibly much?????  I must say that I am impressed!  I have celebrity snails!

Now comes the kicker! There are millions of these critters on the posts!   If I could only find a buyer for my multitudes of mollusks, I would be rich beyond my wildest dreams!  There would be no more waiting months and months between someone expressing an interest in an art piece!  Another plus..I could spend all my time down on the pier and call it work!  Now..that is what I call a job!  Aha!! Chief Snail Collector..a very important title for this very important job!  Now if I could just find a buyer for my snails!  Hmmmmm??