The live conches are cooked and eaten as food.

Few kinds of conches are capable of producing pearls, like oysters.

the soft conch pulled out from the shell

The brightly coloured spiral shaped conches (shells) are used as wind instrument (music instrument), like a trumpet; and also used as ornaments, and for decoration; or they are just valued and kept as a collector’s item.

Conches (shells) have been in the scriptures of several ancient cultures:  they were blown to announce the beginning of a religious ritual or a battle, etc., in Hindu religion – several of the Hindu gods are seen carrying conches in their hands; Buddhists monks blow them to announce some important religious occasion; and the ancient civilisations of South America were very familiar with the use of the conch which is seen in their art even to this day.

The most surprising thing is that, in the modern music world, several famous music composers have used the conch in their music compositions!