Poop Management, or Tips for Maintaining a Clean..

[pinkunicorn]

...or tips for maintaining a clean snailarium or slugarium!

I thought it would be nice to collect everybody's methods for terrarium environment management in one place. It should be helpful for both newbies and experienced snail keepers. Specifically stuff relating to cleaning and washing tanks and decor, keeping mold at bay, removing feces, cleaning different substrates etc.

What you do daily and how you do it to save time and effort?

What you do weekly/biweekly/monthly?

Which methods have turned out to be the best for you and why?

Which methods have you tried and found unsuitable, time-consuming or otherwise bad?

Tips for saving money and time, as well as tips for effective methods that take less effort?

Anything species specific? What species are messy, which are easier to maintain? Do certain species prefer certain conditions etc observations?

Any tips for large numbers if animals in one tank?

Anything else helpful that comes to mind!

I will also link past topics in this post for easier reference.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using proboards

[malacophile]

I clean and refill their water dishes daily and do the same to their food dishes every other day. For poop management, I have pillbugs, worms and springtails in the tubs, but they can't get the stuff that accumulates on the walls. For that, I just do a wipe-down once every week or two, depending on how bad it is. Most of my slugs and snails are pretty tidy poopers, so it's not too bad to clean up.

I've got so many babies hatching now, though, that I want a more efficient way of doing things. Once the poop load on the walls of the tubs gets too bad, it takes a whole lot of wiping! I'm considering just scraping most of it off and letting the aforementioned janitorial crew deal with it.

[tsrebel]

First of all: My tanks are not clean. They are small eco systems, and eco systems are never clean.

What you do daily and how you do it to save time and effort?
Feeding and spraying.

What you do weekly/biweekly/monthly?
Wash the tank's windows so I can look inside - monthly or less. All my tanks have light installed and glass/acrylic windows.

Which methods have turned out to be the best for you and why?
I keep mourning geckos in my largest tank and plan to get some for my smaller tanks (the geckos will be moved around to where they are needed to eat flies and other bugs, depending on their size).

Which methods have you tried and found unsuitable, time-consuming or otherwise bad?
Don't remember

Tips for saving money and time, as well as tips for effective methods that take less effort?
Eco-system approach: Bugs to take care of mold, poo and leftovers. These are also good gecko food during holidays.

Anything species specific? What species are messy, which are easier to maintain? Do certain species prefer certain conditions etc observations?
Some species prefer their food not so fresh. That goes for my Cepaeas, Ariante arbustorum. They also like lichens - a cheap, easy to store food that doesn't go bad.
Some species prefer soft and/or sweet food (fruit, berries etc.) that goes bad fast. That means you have to change food more often = more work. This goes especially for my Achatina zanzibaricas.
My favorite snail when it comes to being least messy, is Leptaxis undata (very rare as a pet). They eat anything, prefer harder over softer food, don't mind if the food is old or fresh and seems extremely hardy (especially since their origin is Madeira - secluded, sub-tropical eco system with few enemies) - none of mine have died (except newly hatched escapees).

Any tips for large numbers if animals in one tank?
A mix of fresh-eaters and poo-eaters. In my experience, the Achatinidae are fresh-eaters, while Cepaeas (maybe all Helicidae?) and Leptaxis undata are poo-eaters. But the smaller snails should not have weak shells (I'd prefer the Leptaxis undata over Cepaeas).

Anything else helpful that comes to mind!
I keep babies of large species in small boxes until they are half adult size or have a thick shell. In my small boxes, the eco-system-approach is impossible, so the boxes are shifted every other week or so (depending on feeding, pooing, filthyness etc.).
The smaller snails and heavy breaders (I had some Achatina immaculata var panthera that seemed to mate and producing eggs constantly) I keep with the adults.

[vallery]

Took me a while to get to this had to see what I do generally as I think I just became so use to my routine I wasn't quit sure what I did repeatedly for this topic.
Great topic though. I hope more people put there information on it would be a great help for all of us. Thank you Pinkunicorn.

1 a) What I do daily: I generally give the tanks a once over to check everyone out, I give the tank a mist let it sit to soften any hard poop, them lift out some of the big poopies on the glass sides and plants and objects in tanks such as hides also there food dish with poop on it and now and then on a snail shell,with a wet paintbrush this leads into b) What saves time and effort: Doing this saves time and effort when it comes time to giving the tanks a complete cleaning. (at the same time I i also remove any pinches of mold if there is any which is rare in my tanks. And wash the tank tops definitely as they not only collect the most poop but the slime from the snails can dry and cut off there supply of air.

2. a) What I do weekly I use potted plants so I am able to take the plant right out and wash the leaves covered in poop and the sides of the plant pots. I give the side of the tanks a mist to soften poop and wipe it clean inside and outside with moist paper towel. And give the sticks and objects like bark and hides a wash. And I give the snails a bath.
b) What I do biweekly is just give the tank a once over.
c) Monthly depending on the state of the tank I do a
thou rough cleaning.

3 a) The method of the daily once over by misting the glass and tank and lifting out large poops, etc. daily works the best for me so when it comes time to do a thou rough cleaning its far easier to clean. Why because there is far less poop- and moldy poop.

4 a) What I have learned that does not work for me, is time consuming and otherwise bad and I find unsuitable is not doing that daily once over. Poop bets hard, snails get covered in it as everything else it dries and is far more difficult and takes longer to get off stuff.

5 a) tips for saving money and time.
1. washing and re sterilizing there substrate and objects in tank like sticks or bark etc.
2. Recently bought a filtered water jug saving money on buying spring water.
3. Purchasing a really good mister that gives you a fine mist and doesn't saturate the tank when spraying to moisten poop to wipe off.
4. Washing and drying old pieces of cuttle fish bone that has been pooped on to reuse.
5. For local snails using their natural environment supplies so I don't have to buy for those particular species.

I have more for the rest of the questioneer but I will continue on a different post.

Hope this helps some people with Ideas.
vallery