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Post by malacophile on Jan 14, 2013 18:11:45 GMT
I thought it'd be interesting to find out what kinds of tools we use for managing our slimy friends. I use a paintbrush to help me pick up my slugs because goodness knows that they're often impossible to pick up with my fingers! I also use it to slide under my snails' feet when I need to move them. Another convenient use for the paintbrush is herding the slugs. I brush their tails with it when I want them to move or when I'm trying to discourage them from harassing other slugs. It's especially handy for retrieving them from tight spaces or relocating babies. Interestingly, I've noticed that my Deroceras laeve slugs, the aggressive little buggers that they are, will bite at the brush occasionally when I use it to keep them from attacking another slug.
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Post by pinkunicorn on Jan 14, 2013 20:41:20 GMT
I use plastic tweezers for picking up small slugs and baby snails. The green medical ones. And another pair for picking out poop! I also use them as "cattle prod" to herd slugs. Unfortunately some are not very sensitive and need a gentle squeeze to move them along.
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Post by feelahthetigress on Jan 15, 2013 20:35:32 GMT
My tools are not nearly as cool. I just have a spray bottle of distilled water (for misting and cleaning the sides of the glass) and I have gloves.
Hmm...It's not really a tool, but I just discovered that although the snails don't like to eat it, placing a sprig of fresh rosemary in the tank makes it smell nice! In fact, I bet any fresh strong-smelling herb (such as sage, lavender, or thyme) would work as a great, snail-safe air freshener!
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Post by malacophile on Jan 16, 2013 6:23:58 GMT
Hmm... I'll have to remember that. Sometimes the bins get so musty that they offend the nose. Oh, I forgot to mention that, in addition to my trusty spray bottle, I also use a head lamp, like the kind spelunkers use. Even in the daylight, it makes the little slimy ones so much easier to see, and has even helped me identify some of my slugs by enhancing my ability to make out their patterns.
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Post by Evil Angel on Jan 16, 2013 15:31:59 GMT
There's 3 tools that I use: spray bottle, cloth for cleaning the sides of my tanks, and the best 'tool' of all - my tiger worms!
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Post by feelahthetigress on Jan 16, 2013 19:11:57 GMT
Tiger worm?
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Post by Evil Angel on Jan 17, 2013 13:18:06 GMT
They're the best 'tool' I've ever bought for my snail tanks! They eat all the poop and left over food which means I almost never need to change the soil They're the best worms to use for snails because they can cope with higher temps better than other types, they're also the best composting worms so they're great for warm snail tanks, I keep a good supply of them so my tanks are kept perfectly clean and never smelly and all I ever have to do is give the sides a wipe down, they're amazing, saved loads of money on new soil!
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Post by feelahthetigress on Jan 17, 2013 15:31:27 GMT
I've considered adding worms before to my tank, but I've been put off by stories of people who tried it and then all their worms died and it stank terribly and they had to throw out all their soil and start again. What happens when some of your worms die from old age? Do you have to tediously fish them out after discovering the stench? Also, about how many worms would you need for a 10 gallon snail tank? Do you have to feed them extra food? I read that tiger worms are usually used for compost, which means that they may not be getting very much food in a snail tank since all their is in there is snail poo (my snails are aspersas, and probably don't poo as much as a GAL) and whatever snail food that you don't remove once it goes moldy.
Sorry for so many questions, but I've been pondering the worm issue for some time, since I have a tank with live plants in it. My tank might be much too small to support worms though.
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Post by Evil Angel on Jan 17, 2013 17:10:33 GMT
I've got 10 large tanks which together must hold easily 1000+ worms which I've been breeding for 2 years now, and never had any problems. When you add worms, your tank becomes self-cleaning, so when a worm dies it just becomes food, I've never seen any dead worms in my tanks at all and I've never had any bad smells come from any of my tanks. The only time I ever had dead worms and smell was even I ordered some from Ebay and they arrived dead. They get enough food, even when kept with something small like Helix snails, I feed my GALS and garden snails once every 4-7 days depending on how much I put in the tank, I put a good amount in, and whatever the snails dont eat will be eaten by the worms, and whatever is eaten by the snails will also eventually get eaten by the worms too haha Food isn't in my tanks long enough to go moldy, it always gets eaten completely and rather quickly. But if you do have left over food, I would simply say leave it in the tank and check on it until you feel it needs to be removed. For any tank I always start of with between 10-50 worms. They are very clever little things and don't over populate, but rather just breed until they are the right number for the tank so you normally only need a small amount to get started. Oh and I also have a couple baby tanks which are about 21L, and the worms in them are doing great, so 10gallons would be ok
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Post by feelahthetigress on Jan 17, 2013 19:20:02 GMT
That sounds pretty cool. I'm thinking it'd be worth trying out when I can find some of the proper worms! I'm assuming you don't use a food dish and place everything directly on the ground so the worms can eat some too? I'm currently using a food dish to try to keep the soil clean, and I have to tediously pick up an snail poo on the ground with a spoon. I'm still kind of nervous of trying the worms, if I have a worm based disaster then I'll have to replace all the soil and remove and replant the plants. Still, it might be worth trying, especially after hearing your description of how nice it is. My tank is small though and doesn't house very many snails, only 4 Aspersas and 2 smaller species. According to the snail tank size calculator on the website I could definitely fit more snails into this tank, but I haven't because I wouldn't want to keep up with cleaning that volume of poo. I wonder if worms would make this easier?
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Post by Evil Angel on Jan 17, 2013 21:26:32 GMT
You could try adding just a couple at first and see how they go, that way if they did die it wouldn't be such a disaster? I don't use a food dish, I find it much more natural to have the food on the floor, though I did have a dish in one of my snail tanks, and the worms would climb into the dish and eat the food from it, I'd pick it up and there'd be like 30 worms under it and about 50 inside it lol so I just place food on the floor now Your tank size will be fine for worms, and you'd defo be able to add more snails as poo really shouldn't be a worry anymore, I used to keep cepaea and for a few weeks I had to have about 50 adults in one of the 21liter tanks because it was too cold too release some of them, so while I waited for the weather to pick up again I added 25 worms and never saw a single poop on the soil so that was a real life-saver! Couldn't live without my little ecosystems now! I defo wouldn't have been able to have all the tanks I have now, I'd have had to stick to just the one tank if I had to keep replacing the soil and doing so much cleaning, it would have taken me all day to do all my tanks and cost me a fortune in soil
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Post by feelahthetigress on Jan 17, 2013 21:48:05 GMT
That sounds awesome! I think it's definitely worth trying them out now! Do you have any idea where I could possibly buy some in the physical world? I might need to wait until spring for that....but I'd like to avoid buying online if I don't have to so I don't have to buy 1000 of them. Of course, if I do need to, I can do it. Oh, and I read that tiger worms are really just red wigglers with a different name... I attached a pic of my tank so you can see the setup. Note the live plants. Attachments:
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Post by malacophile on Jan 18, 2013 6:26:50 GMT
Those tiger worms are cool-looking. I keep worms in my bins, too, and they've been breeding. I swear, the ones in my bins seem healthier and more lively than the ones that live outside!
Great setup, Feelah! Do they not eat the ivy, then? I've got one as a houseplant and I'd been wondering if I could put a cutting in with my slugs and snails.
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Post by vallery on Jan 18, 2013 6:30:45 GMT
Her are some posts of some of the tools of the trade that I use. First pic: Glass reptile terrariums Ottlite: To see far better in the tank when I am working on the tanks Attachments:
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Post by vallery on Jan 18, 2013 6:31:39 GMT
2nd pic side view of ottlite. Attachments:
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Post by vallery on Jan 18, 2013 6:41:25 GMT
3rd pic: Paper towel for cleaning. Heater to keep room at steady temperature. Plastic strainer for snailly baths. Turkey baster: I always put a layer of gravel in the bottom of my tanks for drainage, next I cover the drainage gravel with window screen and as excess water builds up I use the turkey baster to suck out the excess water. Small flat head paint brush for lifting baby slugs. Small fine point paintbrush for lifting baby snails. Paint brushes also used for removing poop. Q-Tips for wiping the inside of the smaller tanks. Tweezers for lifting objects in tanks to while checking tanks out, and have used them to gently lift baby slugs removing old pieces of food dragged off of the dinner dishes. Scour pad when doing a wash of the tanks. Attachments:
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Post by vallery on Jan 18, 2013 6:47:50 GMT
4th pic: Misting bottle. Mortar and pestle to powder egg shell/cuttlefish bone and goldfish food in. Humidex. Flashlight. 2nd type of scouring pad. Pictures not shown: magnifying glasses, new water filter jug, Egg pots. Potato peeler to make carrot slices, knife to scrap extra cuttlefish bone around some places in tanks. Attachments:
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Post by malacophile on Jan 18, 2013 7:19:28 GMT
*Gasp!* A mortar and pestle! I SO need to get me one of those!
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Post by vallery on Jan 18, 2013 7:21:11 GMT
Yes do, they are excellent!
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Post by Evil Angel on Jan 18, 2013 9:47:14 GMT
In regards to tiger worms, there are about 26 UK species, most quite hard to ID, however Tigers are quite easy to ID due to their stripes. I normally buy like 200 of eBay, but you could try a fishing shop for a smaller amount as Tigers are often used as bait.
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Post by feelahthetigress on Jan 21, 2013 16:33:02 GMT
Those tiger worms are cool-looking. I keep worms in my bins, too, and they've been breeding. I swear, the ones in my bins seem healthier and more lively than the ones that live outside! Great setup, Feelah! Do they not eat the ivy, then? I've got one as a houseplant and I'd been wondering if I could put a cutting in with my slugs and snails. Malacophile: No, they don't eat ivy. They just don't seem to like it. They did nibble off the top of my sansaveria in there, but so long as I provide tastier food they leave it alone. It's been a struggle for me to find plants that are small enough and can tolerate low light/high moisture, and can withstand the constant strain of snails crawling on them. The sansaveria is very rigid and can support the weight of the Aspersas and seems to do well in the moist/low light environment. The ivy does well too, and usually bends and springs back instead of breaking when the snails climb it. It's quite hardy, but not as indestructible as the sansaverias. I used to have a pothos in there, but the snails sat on the leaves and broke off several leaves and I had to remove it because it was dying. Thanks Evil Angel. I'm thinking of buying some on amazon or ebay. I really don't know where I'd get any locally this time of year. Although maybe I ought to wait for warmer weather so I can release the extras into the wild. EDIT: Oh Malacophile, I forgot to mention, if you do want to introduce ivy into the tank from a cutting, root the cutting in a small pot first and let it grow to reasonable size. If you don't, they will decimate it when they crawl all over it. In fact, my smaller size ivy in my tank has been destroyed (all it's leaved were broken off by snails that were too large for it) so I'm thinking of buying another variety of sansaveria (also called snake plant or Mother-in-Law's Tongue) to replace it with.
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Post by feelahthetigress on Jan 26, 2013 22:08:32 GMT
I've done it! I bought some worms on ebay and put them in the tank. How long before they get used to their new environment and start eating stuff for me?
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Post by shaydeesnail on Jan 31, 2013 19:11:37 GMT
This is my favourite tool! My snails seem to prefer hard foods much more when they are sliced very thin with a peeler, and this is a good way to get it all together then just tip it into a pot. Got mine from a pound shop too!
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