The shell and soft parts of living "A. gigas" serve as a home to several different kinds of commensal animals, including slipper snails, porcelain crabs and a specialized species of cardinalfish known as the conchfish "Astrapogon stellatus". Its parasites include coccidians. The queen conch's natural predators include several species of large predatory sea snails, octopus, starfish, crustaceans and vertebrates (fish, sea turtles, nurse sharks). It is an especially important food source for large predators like sea turtles and nurse sharks. Human capture and consumption dates back into prehistory.