my oxychilus alliarus

[vallery]

Hi this is a photo of my oxychilus alliurus. It is rare to get a photo of him as he is pretty shy. This picture is of him on his favorite stick. I had him out to clean his terrarium, usually he stays in his shell when I do this. I had only ever seen cepaea nemoralis and cepaea hortenis in my gardens but one day when I was out collecting some stuff for my cepaeas terrarium I found three small shells. I thought they were all dead and brought the shells into my kitchen and placed them in a glass bowl. Then turned to sort out the materials I had collected for my cepaeas. When I turned back around there was a snail from one of the three shells crawling out of the bowl. I was very surprised and more surprised his skin was blue. So I went on line to find out information about him and what he would need if I made up a terrarium for him. The shells I found were in my west garden which is quite different then my east garden so I collected materials for his terrarium only from the west garden where I found the three shells. I would still like to hear more information about his species to make sure I care for him properly. Coyote has already helped in regard to this species eating other snails eggs and babies. As well as laying leaves down because the like to go under the leaves. Coyote helped me a lot with him. Thank you Coyote. I would love to hear more information about this species. Than You Valerie

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[foghog]

most people call them garlic or glass snails, and they like super moist humid micro climates, so ya moist leaves and moist rotted log/wood/etc is ideal for them. There have been some who say they eat the algae and fungi like mushrooms which grow on it. I know they eat decaying organic material, but not sure which they prefer specifically.

[vallery]

Thanks. He seems to be on that stick in the picture a lot and on a damp piece of bark in his terrarium, and seemed to be eating off of them. Do you know if he can survive without eating snail eggs or baby snails?

[foghog]

yes he can definitely. they are omnivores.

[vallery]

Thank You I just don't have the heart to feed him anymore eggs.

[ness]

petsnails.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=10579&page=1

I don't know if you will find this useful?

[vallery]

ness I checked out that site and I'm a little confused as to what type he really is oxychilus ? they all look pretty similar

[foghog]

ya I was going to bring this up earlier, but I presumed, you were sure. the best way is spook it and see if you smell garlic frankly. don't harm it of course. tapping lightly on it's shell, or even when you pick it up t let it crawl on your hand will do it usually. if it smells like garlic it is a alliarus. (hence the latin name for garlic.)

[coyote]

I think he would like to have some fish flakes, if you don't want to give him snail eggs. My garlic snails always ate the lion's share of fish flakes I put in the tank.

[vallery]

By fish flakes do you mean fish food that the pet store sells to feed your goldfish or tropical fish? If so which is the best for him.

[vallery]

Sorry. I more question coyote, do you still have garlic snails?

[vallery]

Hi found a thread in feeding about the fish flakes. Not to worry . Thanks Vallery

[coyote]

I don't have any garlic snails at the moment, but I used to have quite a lot. They loved fish flakes more than any other kind of snail I've had.

[pinkunicorn]

That's a very cute snail. Love the colour.

[vallery]

Thanks, yes I love the color also, it did not show up as blue as he really is, bad photography.