The most common colour form is dark brown to black, but small numbers of orange, white and mauve specimens are found. As this species is confined to such a small area, all sharing the same living conditions, the colour variations must be genetic.

Breeding in this species takes place from January to April inclusive commencing with copulation in early January. After mating, the female stores the semen in a semenal sac in the vagina until she is ready to commence laying her eggs.

The females then congregate in reef crevices forming ‘nests’ of egg-laying breeders. Each egg capsule, not unlike a sweetcorn in appearance, contains a large number of eggs, about 10% of that are fertile. Females lay a large number of capsules, attaching them to the rock surfaces and the backs of other females.

The incubation period takes eight weeks. The hatchlings float around as veligers for several hours and the tide disperses them throughout the reef. Naturally, heavy predation occurs during the veliger stage and only a few survive to settle to the bottom and commence to grow.

Murex shells are carnivorous, preferring several species of Bivalves. However, the ruby murex will kill and eat the soft parts of practically any species of mollusk by drilling through the outer shell, or in the case of cowries, by feeding directly throughout the aperture.

The ruby murex deserves protection because of its uniqueness to the area, because of its endangered status and because of its supreme beauty.