Swollen Grove Snail

[forca]

swelling and white spots on shell

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[inky]

Did you feed her rice or something in that section? If you did, you must wait for it to pass through.

[inky]

I forgot to say, the spots on shell are probably because of lack of calcium. Do you have cuttlefish in her tank?

[coyote]

Sometimes my snails get a swollen mantle, which always seem to resolve on its own after a day or 2. I don't know what causes it.

[foghog]

whats the standard questions on their habitat? humidity, temperature, type of substrate what have you fed them? hopefully not any pasta, which this doesn't look like at all really. I'd say maybe lower the humidity, I believe it is important to have humidity and temperature fluctuations in their environment for a daily cycle as well as seasonal, including length of daylight, temp, humidity, spectrum of light, and concentration. not that you have to be all worried about the specifics of it super much, but I think there should be a fluctuation, be it you turning your heat down in your house at night, or the light off compared to leaving it the same temp constantly. also, with feeding them calcium I highly recommend a 50/50 mix of calcium powder and oyster shell flour on top of a cuttle bone. they seem to eat it at least twice as much as a regular calcium block, and three times as much as cuttlebone alone.

[ness]

Has it had something new in its diet?

[axoloa]

Hi forca, this is not uncommon with Capaea nemoralis or hortensis. the swollen mantle can mean a number of things, usualy one of the 3: Ready to drop a batch of eggs very soon, has been dropped or pulled of the tank and damaged a muscle, consumption of a swelling or yeast based food (eg rice, bread or pasta as foghog has said) all of these cases repair by themself (usualy) like coyote has said already. keep an eye on her however because if it does have anything to do with muscular damage then its posible that the mantle could actualy continue to swell and start to dry out. as for the spots on the shell, it is posible that its lack of calcium like others have said although personaly I would more likely say that some of the colouration has been eaten by other snails kept with it. this happens all the time with capaea from my greenhouse, hence why i always bring the ones i intend to trade as pets in at a young age and keep them in very small groups of 3 to 5 depending on enclosure size. anything more than 10 Capaea in an enclosure smaller than 30cm/30cm/30cm will undoubtably have this problem.
hope this helps

[vallery]

My question is do you have more than one grove snail? And if you have more than one is it in the same tank as the others. If so then why would this be happening to only one of them?

[forca]

Its not happening to one. Its happening to like half. Why would I take pics of all I have cucumbers and cuttle, very few you will touch the cuttle. I just bought some baby milk powder today..will that help? Also one of them has a lot of slime, was causing bubbles. Anything I can do?

[forca]

I def have more than 10 hehe. My dad eats them so I rescued a bunch. And I have baby snails in another tank, so even way more than ten for them. They don't really bother eachother tho, online when bathed and that's when that showed so that may have happened. Other than that they behave very well. And humidity isn't an issue, I need a heat pad cause my rooms always in 60s in winter (not good) I plan on buying one when I get paid

[axoloa]

Dec 10, 2011 3:31:20 GMT forca said:

Its not happening to one. Its happening to like half. Why would I take pics of all I have cucumbers and cuttle, very few you will touch the cuttle. I just bought some baby milk powder today..will that help? Also one of them has a lot of slime, was causing bubbles. Anything I can do?

Hi forca,
you could always try mashing the cucumber with some powderd cuttle fish or egg shell. This is what Vallery does (its her own idea not mine, im sure she wont mind me sharing it) this would probabaly tempt your snails into consuming some calcium

Milkpowder is not something I know much about so I cant personaly be much help on this, though as long as it dosent contain any salt then I cant see it being a problem. Id wait however for a few other responses on it before going ahead with it :/

the only thing I can think of with your snail that blows bubbles and slimes allot is salt? this might seem an obviouse question but I do feel the need to ask, the cuttle fish you have supplied for them that they are not eating, do you know if this is bleached and boiled?? sometimes people sell cuttle fish that has not been properly cured theirfor it still contains salt traces from the sea. to some people this may sound weird, but i always shave off the surface layer with a desposable razor and then taste it to make sure i can taste no salt before putting it anywhere near to my snails, just to see if i can taste any salt on it. last week my mother bought me some cuttle fish from ebay and as soon as my tongue touched the shavings it, it was like i had literaly poored salt onto my tongue, darnt use it for snails. it may be worth you doing the same just as a precaution (theirs nothing realy gross about tasteing cuttle fish) usualy, if its not properly bleached and boiled then it smells like the sea anyway so you would probabaly know anyway (personaly Id still taste it).

[forca]

yeh maybe...i bought it from a petstore. in the bird section. ill check the powder for salt, but i dont think it would have it since its for babies and salts not healthy. theyre getting worse and worse byt he minute. im gunna go bathe them, and maybe seperate the swollen ones from the healthy ones? the bigger nails are the swollen ones, and the smaller snails seem fine..also some of the snails are being very lazy outside theyre shells. not eating, just laying limp untill i move them but they just return to that state. one i moved and he hasnt moved since this morning. stillin his shell. usually when i move them they come out. im gunna take all the dirt out completely too and just try to let them heal. find some better substrate. idk if i have any potting soil, i was using top soil. its all natural stuff but maybe its no good. ive had the since summer, weird that this is happening now for no reason. also when i cleaned them i found tinnyyyyy clear worms, and tinyyyy white bug things in the dirt. not sure what they are? and one of my snails was completely into his shell i couldnt even see his body. so i assumed hes dead and threw him out. bathed everyone. then the swelling started. and as i said it seems to be getting worse. i meant to buy green tea from work today. but i forgot. so ill just try to rinse them with warm water for now .

[axoloa]

hi, it sounds to me they may be a little low on a scource of energy.. Have you tried feeding them banana??

[forca]

No! I will try that tomorrow!! I bathed them today..didn't help. They can't even go into they're shells that's how swollen they are. Its so sad. And I took a layer off the cultbone whatever, and it tasted plain, no salt! Ughh I hope my babies don't die on me its just weird how they've been fine then one min this happens to all of them at the same time. I feel like a bad mother but I know I'm not. Is top soil ok for substrate? Or should I look into potting soil. Also...milk powder is a 900G can and has 15 of sodium .

[forca]

Ill also do egg shell

[axoloa]

Dec 11, 2011 4:47:20 GMT forca said:

No! I will try that tomorrow!! I bathed them today..didn't help. They can't even go into they're shells that's how swollen they are. Its so sad. And I took a layer off the cultbone whatever, and it tasted plain, no salt! Ughh I hope my babies don't die on me its just weird how they've been fine then one min this happens to all of them at the same time. I feel like a bad mother but I know I'm not. Is top soil ok for substrate? Or should I look into potting soil. Also...milk powder is a 900G can and has 15 of sodium .

Hi, I doubt that your a bad mother. Theirs lots of things that can go wrong with snails for lots of different reasons (some that are yet to be identified). top soil is fine for them, but id boil it before use (bakeing it works just as well but takes longer). I do this with my substrait all the time when using any form of soil (weather it be fresh from a garden centrle or used in my garden first). I personaly wouldent like to say if 15g sodium in a 900g jar would be ok or not. I know that I for one wouldent take the chance :/ what you have to ask yourself is, if it was 15g of cyanide instead of sodium, then would you use the powder for a cup of coffe for yourself?

[coyote]

Some people use green tea for bathing their snails, and it might help with the swelling. Just make sure it's room temperature, not just off the boil and still hot.

For a substrate you can try coir, usually sold in a dehydrated, compressed brick of fiber (usually in the reptile section of the pet supply store) that needs to be soaked and rehydrated prior to use. It's good for moisture retention, which is important for snails.

I'm not sure about giving milk powder to snails. I think some people do, but most seem not to. Cuttle from the bird section of the pet store ought to be okay in terms of sodium content for snails. I like to use powdered limestone as a calcium source, myself, and my snails like it a lot more than cuttle.

If it's any consolation, I've had snails that were so puffy they couldn't fully retract, but they got better after a few days on their own.

[forca]

no it says per 100 g 15 mg. but it shows it like this... Sodium......118mg........15mg
and yes i work today again so im gunna get some, hopefully ill remember this time, and its good enough green tea.

can they lay eggs in coir? and i got milk powder because ive read on multiple sites to use it. im not happy now cause its not cheap. and where do i get limestone? i live in a small city so not everything is in my reach. but we did just get a petsmart so that helps alot. and it has been a few days. so hopefully they get better.

[axoloa]

Dec 11, 2011 14:51:29 GMT forca said:

no it says per 100 g 15 mg. but it shows it like this... Sodium......118mg........15mg
and yes i work today again so im gunna get some, hopefully ill remember this time, and its good enough green tea.

can they lay eggs in coir? and i got milk powder because ive read on multiple sites to use it. im not happy now cause its not cheap. and where do i get limestone? i live in a small city so not everything is in my reach. but we did just get a petsmart so that helps alot. and it has been a few days. so hopefully they get better.

Capaea will lay eggs in coir no problem at all as will most snails. Ebay would be your best bet for 'limestone powder'. If you wanted solid limestone, then you could probabaly get offcuts from your local gravestone makers. Im sure they will give you a few small peices if you ask nicely

[coyote]

Sometimes large garden centers will have powdered limestone, but you need to double check that it's pure limestone and not a blend of other minerals, and especially that it isn't just lime (which will kill your snails).

Also, feed stores that cater to the horse / poultry crowd might carry limestone powder. The one closest to me didn't when I went in, but they used to. It was just easier for me to get my limestone powder on eBay.

[forca]

coir isnt sold here. but i was shown to what petsmart uses for their snails. and she said theyve never had a problem with it. so im gunna try it. anyways thanks for all the help guys ill update you in a few days

[axoloa]

Dec 11, 2011 23:21:11 GMT coyote said:

Sometimes large garden centers will have powdered limestone, but you need to double check that it's pure limestone and not a blend of other minerals, and especially that it isn't just lime (which will kill your snails).

Just adding to what Coyote said, you may find that in garden centers powderd lime stone is labeld "lime"

[forca]

ok! ill check it out

[coyote]

Hopefully a garden center employee will ask you what it's for before just selling you something labeled "lime." This is a case where it pays to ask tons of questions and be extra-doubly sure before you bring something hope to put in your tank.

I know that the powdered limestone I got on eBay is 100% pure limestone because it came from an industrial supplier with documentation about the chemical content and particle size. So I know it's okay for my snails.