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Post by pinkunicorn on Nov 19, 2011 15:40:25 GMT
(This thread serves as my snail & slug family album and a sort of a photo diary of their lives.) I took some better pics while cleaning the tank. Snailies are residing in a metal pot while the soil is getting sterilised in the oven, and keeping themselves busy with some lettuce. Wild caught aspersas, I don't know their ages but two at least are mature. One seems a bit younger judging by the shell size! These two huddled together almost seem like an item... always together and carrying eggs atm. Too bad they didn't lay the eggs yet. There's a little slug hiding underneath the small shard of pottery, but it didn't want to come out for a picture.
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Post by Greta on Nov 19, 2011 16:33:11 GMT
AWWWW Thayer are lovely
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iloncia
Achatina achatina
Posts: 71
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Post by iloncia on Nov 19, 2011 19:31:02 GMT
Wonderful snails, i like the one, who sits at the back working on his own piece of lettuce. Bit of a loner, perhaps
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Post by pinkunicorn on Nov 19, 2011 20:54:12 GMT
Hehe, s/he's quite the explorer snail, always trying to escape when the lid is open. And s/he likes to run along my hands and arms a lot, not even wanting to go back to the tank when I try to guide him back. Instead, s/he comes to the computer and to look at the cooking on the stove and wherever I go if I take him out of the tank.
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Post by pinkunicorn on Nov 19, 2011 21:07:23 GMT
The last but not least inhabitant of my tank slimed his way out of hiding. If anyone knows what species s/he is, I'd be glad to hear. Caught in the Netherlands. I never see him eat, the only way I know s/he does eat something is the tiny piles of poop I see in his favourite hiding spots... I'm a little worried I'm not taking care of him the right way, but so far s/he seems to do OK. S/he was the "surprise slug" that sneaked his way in along a shard of pottery!
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iloncia
Achatina achatina
Posts: 71
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Post by iloncia on Nov 19, 2011 22:49:33 GMT
Awesome surprise slug!!! I love the cafe late colour of his skin.
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coyote
Archachatina papyracea
Cochleas ego amo
Posts: 2,955
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Post by coyote on Nov 20, 2011 5:11:06 GMT
I don't recognize the slug species; I hope someone else does. Lovely snails (and sluggy too)!
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forca
Archachatina marginata
Posts: 23
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Post by forca on Dec 11, 2011 23:35:03 GMT
beautiful snails!
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Post by pinkunicorn on Dec 13, 2011 19:02:05 GMT
Thanks! Here's our new snail home. The pottery arrangement has been a huge success, instead of sleeping on the walls the snailies now prefer to sleep under the shards most of the time. Sluggy's favourite hangout: the salad bowl. Sluggy has grown quite a bit from the last piccy, too. Not that it shows in this picture, given he's not moving... Woohoo, I can climb a carrot stalk! Eeeeh, what's happening... I'm falling! Bah, too fat! I need to go on a diet! ... or lose the shell. Screw this. I'm sticking to climbing on pottery now.
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Post by axoloa on Dec 14, 2011 4:58:57 GMT
its realy interesting to see how the same species of snail can vary in appearence depending on the country and its climate British Helix Aspersa usualy have their pattern more spread out and less liney (if that makes sence at all). Yours are just beautiful Im actualy very curias to know now, the different snail/slugs species you have seen in The Netherlands. I just had to check it out on google and managed to find at least 2 snail species I had never seen or heard of untill now In the North West of England (where I live), the only species of snail that can be found (to my knowledge) are the Helix Aspersa, Capaea Nemoralis, Capaea Hortensis, Trochulus Striolata and less commonly but certainly findable if you know where to look the lovely Oxychilius Alliarius (common names: Garlic snail / Blue fleshed snail).
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coyote
Archachatina papyracea
Cochleas ego amo
Posts: 2,955
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Post by coyote on Dec 14, 2011 5:06:49 GMT
LOL! Nice pics, nice tank, lovely snailies and sluggy!
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Post by pinkunicorn on Dec 14, 2011 9:56:00 GMT
Thanks, hehe. I gently scrubbed their shells to get the pattern more visible after lots of burrowing. They all have quite distinct patterns and it is best seen in the "baby" who is now bigger than the rest, because her shell is very smooth and unscratched. She is also almost translucent in the foot and a lot paler than the others, which makes for nice contrast. Just need to get them posing for comparison...
As for the species... the man is a biologist so I need to ask what he knows. C. nemoralis is pretty common in Noord-Holland area, especially in the nearby park. I've not seen too many of them myself though. Mostly aspersas. I hear there should be leopard slugs too, which I hope to catch a few next summer!
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Post by pinkunicorn on Dec 14, 2011 13:48:21 GMT
A couple more pics, this time posing. Or, attempting to pose. I do not usually take out more than one snail at a time, and I think whoever coined the phrase "like herding cats" never tried snails, else we'd know the phrase as "like herding snails". Here you can see the colour difference very well, almost as it is in reality (the photos conceal most of the differences in shades for some reason). The one sliming down my arm is the young one, toffee coloured foot instead of darker grey-brown like the rest. And of course, unscratched shell. And then I had snails crawling all over my arm so it was getting a bit difficult to manage... Good thing I only use coconut oil for body lotion, so them snailies don't get poisoned even if they do crawl along my arms! They formed a snail pile as soon as I put them on the tank lid. Except for the baby, who was sliming away on the other side of the lid. The white bits on the shells are self-inflicted. They sometimes like to rasp own shell a bit, despite eating cuttle and oyster, too. Weird.
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Post by axoloa on Dec 14, 2011 19:04:40 GMT
Im very jelouse I love the colouration on that dark shelled one.. the one displayed alone in your last picture! his a true beauty Are all Aspersa in the Netherlands simmilar to these or were these just a lucky find??
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Post by pinkunicorn on Dec 15, 2011 12:08:13 GMT
I am not sure. The one with the slightly cracked shell also seems a bit lighter in foot colour than the other two, so it makes me wonder if they're somehow related. It has somewhat worn out shell, though, so hard to say if it's been as dark as the baby has at some point. Btw, the baby (I shall name him Baby officially, since he didn't yet have a name... been waiting to see how their personalities work out before giving names, except to Sluggy) is the one on the bottom in the very first picture in the thread. His shell pattern seems to have changed after getting access to constant calcium, or maybe the white patterns were actually scratches. I hope to breed him once he's mature, so that should give some answers. Edit: I asked the BF what he knows about snails in our area... There's 61 known species of land snails and 56 species of aquatic snails in Amsterdam area alone, wow! I learnt I also missed a lecture on snails that was held just two weeks ago, such a shame. The guy who held the lecture is working for this project: www.anemoon.org/anm , which has info on Dutch snails, if interested. I think I will be utilising the species listing when I go hunting for new specimens from the nearby park when spring comes... ;D
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coyote
Archachatina papyracea
Cochleas ego amo
Posts: 2,955
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Post by coyote on Dec 16, 2011 0:01:22 GMT
WRT the shell pattern changing after adoption, I've found that all my WC snails have had their shell patterns change after living in the tank. It's a very distinct line on the shell where the pattern (and sometimes the color as well) changes. That makes me suspect that environmental factors play a role in snail shell patterning, and not solely genetics. I've been assuming it's the different food, but the different light levels may have something to do with it as well. I do know that in the winter the bodies of my snails become paler, and in the summer when I can put the tanks outside in the shade during mild weather, they darken a lot.
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leila
Achatina achatina
Posts: 85
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Post by leila on Dec 16, 2011 1:53:44 GMT
sooo... they get like little snail tans? haha thats awesome
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coyote
Archachatina papyracea
Cochleas ego amo
Posts: 2,955
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Post by coyote on Dec 16, 2011 5:30:42 GMT
Basically, yes, that's what happens. They get darker (but often the sole of the foot remains paler, which makes sense since it gets the least exposure to light).
Of course there is variation from one individual to the next, with some seeming to stay pretty dark all the time and others remaining pale even in the summer, but it seems to be true for the majority of the snails I've kept.
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Post by pinkunicorn on Dec 21, 2011 13:04:39 GMT
Ooh, that is interesting, thanks! Didn't know, but it makes sense. That would definitely explain why the one with the cracked shell is now lighter, because I don't recall it attracting my attention previously. Baby has always been more translucent than the others, but I assumed it was because he was younger. Maybe him being toffee-coloured now is a combination of both the pigment fading and genetic reasons.
Baby has apparently become of age, btw... Raging snail-hormones have taken over my tank, with the usual couple finding each other last night (of which I took some crappy video footage, after being inspired by Love Me Tender; will post it once I've edited, lol) and Baby and the fourth snail going at it right now. Hopefully there will finally be successful eggs this time.
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Post by pinkunicorn on Dec 21, 2011 18:39:32 GMT
Okay, here's some crappy footage... Maybe I will set up a camera all night next time so I get more than just kissy kissy snails, my patience isn't enough to sit and wait for them to get trough the entire mating dance. Out of several takes I chose this one for a reason, tehehe.
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coyote
Archachatina papyracea
Cochleas ego amo
Posts: 2,955
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Post by coyote on Dec 22, 2011 5:33:57 GMT
The snail mating dance can go on and on and on and on and on . . . It would take a lot of patience to capture it all on video.
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Post by pinkunicorn on Dec 25, 2011 0:02:02 GMT
I have three new surprise slugs. My sister found them on the floor as we were having Xmas dinner... they came attached to bottles that were kept on the balcony. The biggest, still tiny, was found first... and then two more. They are just tiny babies. Incredibly cute. I will take good pics in the morning. I think there's a batch of slug babies outside on our balcony. I'm tempted to have a look and rescue the ones I can because they shouldn't be born at this time of the year I think. Boyfriend will kill me...
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Post by ness on Dec 25, 2011 0:09:51 GMT
Looking forward to seeing the photos
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Post by pinkunicorn on Dec 25, 2011 0:25:34 GMT
Oh gosh, Sluggish just attacked the biggest baby! Never seen snail move that fast. He was biting the other's tail! I could see his mouth opening through the plastic. Guess I need to separate them for now...
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Post by pinkunicorn on Dec 25, 2011 21:55:15 GMT
Sluggy #2. She's a bit smaller than Sluggy, but otherwise almost identical. And here we got the darker slugs... The smallest is about the size of my pinky fingernail! Cutie pie. The biggest brown slug I found this afternoon.. here he is after I took him in. ...and here he is when I found him on the balcony. Yes, that is a squished slug he's eating. Poor thing got stepped on last night, when it was so dark. There is a LOT of these slugs on our balcony, it seems, though now I could only find the dead one and this opportunistic hungry little slug.
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