Cepaea: Hibernation and Breeding

[radular]

I'm new to this forum, and am a long time invertebrate enthusiast living in the states. I have only recently just returned to keeping snails as pets (back in middle and high school school I kept native Neohelix albolabris, but that was some seven or eight years ago). In Lowell, MA, I've found introduced Cepaea nemoralis and have been keeping about 13-14 in two plastic aquaria. The animals are gorgeous and after some initial difficulty, I've eased them into a highly varied captive diet of sweet potatoes, Canada thistles (a weed that is very common in the U.S., they eat the small purple flower petals and, more importantly, seem to enjoy scraping the green epidermis from the stems), tomatoes, small pieces of nectarine flesh, romaine lettuce (started with wilted, spoiled leaves, then they began accepting lettuce that was more fresh), and slices of apple. I have one tank with an inch and a half of soil covered in an inch of moss, and the other tank filled with two inches of coconut coir. Both substrates seem to have been accepted by the animals (to my surprise) and the snails readily bury themselves in the day. Both tanks are misted one or twice a day.

Any ways, my question concerns how important is hibernation for these snails to stimulate breeding? I've seen an early possible pre-mating behavior (inspection by one snail of another, with excitedly swelling/pulsing genital opening) but nothing further (the one time I saw this, the amorous mollusk was inspecting an older juvenile, who just wasn't having any of it, and the aroused individual quickly lost interest and crawled off to eat some food.) Right now it's early winter and the temperature has dropped to bellow freezing at night, but still spikes into the 30's & 40's (Fahrenheit) some days. I can initiate dormancy, but the unpredictable weather has just as easily woken up the snails as frequently as it has put them to sleep. So at the moment, not wanting to stress the snails out by repeatedly putting them to hibernate then waking them up, I have them in the house where it's warm and out of the chilly basement garage.

So is it worth letting them hibernate just yet? Can mating happen without hibernation? I know it's important for longevity, and may affect growth of the animals, too. But I'm curious as to how crucial it is for breeding in captivity.

[Zorst]

I've a now very large group of both Cepaea hortensis and Cepaea nemoralis, I've had about 50 of them for the last few years and these have proven to be both easy to keep and easy to breed. They are Native to this area so I release any that do breed and I don't freeze the eggs of when there big enough and the weathers warm enough.

Diet wise I mix a lot of veg and salad plants with wild plants that the snails outside eat. They love sweet potatoes, cabbage leaves, spouts, apples, cucumber, bananas, mushroom, dandelions both flowers and leaves, young dock leaves, chard, spinach, carrots, parsnips, cauliflower n brocalie inc leaves, ash n rowan leaves and sticks as well as swedes and beets, goose thistle, blueberry, blackberry n raspberry leaves. Blue berries, strawberries and raspberries fruits as well, all these grow native here so I collect it for them in season.

Naturally they also like to eat green fly, black fly and white fly aphids and will be out on the trees in the summer eating these as well. After finding this out I did some tests in a poly tunnel where i have a problem with greenfly on some of my plants, I planted some extra food plants for the snails as well and let some loose in the poly tunnel. Well I have to say it was a success, a few snails do keep the aphid population very much under control n I've not lost to many plants to the snails. So its something I'll work with again on a bigger scale as I wont use pesticides etc. They seem to thrive on a very varied and mixed diet. For captive snails Ive tried introduced a bit of protine in the form of some cooked fish or chicken once in a while and some of the snail mix's people have put on here most of this get eaten, as do fish flakes crumbled up n sprinkled on food. They love cuttle fish as well and happily go through that and I use either oyster or scallop shells for there water and these get eaten also for the calcium.

The ones here seem to drop into hibernation for a few weeks at a time then wake up again. I tend to wake them all every few weeks with a warm green tea bath and feed them, they don't get stressed this way and keep up a good body weight,and all grow well, I can also check for any that have died or any things like mites etc at this time. there again are always some who die off when they hibernate but the numbers are minimal. There very active for a day or so after there bath and then any that want to go back to sleep dig themselves holes and do so.

Over time this has proven that to me that they stay healthier and breed more if I keep them this way. There breeding time here seems to mainly be the summer months from April / May until about October. This year we had a very late summer hence getting a few late clutches of eggs that remained hidden and hatched. there is always some die off of the young despite how ever hard I try to keep the healthy, from what I can find out this is relatively normal and a good amount always survive and grow on. Some I have seen mate without hibernating as Ive some that stay don't hibernate and never really have, they just sleep for a couple of days on the side of the tank then are off n busy again for days. Several of these snails are 2 yrs + as they were adult when I gt them and Ive had them for 2 years. Several are easily identified as they came to me with damaged shells that have been repaired but are individual to them. The shell damage doesn't effect there movement or sleeping patterns it just makes them easy to identify. These breed just as well as the others but again they all keep breeding to the warmer months.

As for substructure, I live in the mountains here and have a peat / turf based soil, this is what they naturally live on here so its what I keep snails on, I sometimes add a bit of coconut coir to help aerate the soil. I keep all the snails in tanks in my room / art studio as this seems to suit them well and its warm but not to hot. The ones that need them get a heat mat the others are at room temp. I mist them once to twice daily depending on the humidity as where I live can get very damp. All in all Ive found them very adaptable and easy to keep and breed.

Zorst

[radular]

Bizarre! I had never heard of snails preying on insects before! I've seen slugs and captive Neohelix snails feed on dead insects, but never seeking out live prey of this sort.

[muddydragon]

I haven't heard of it either but it does make sense to go for the high energy sapsuckers especially since they are essentially plugged into the plant so don't move so can't easily escape. I imagine the snail system of biological pest control wouldn't work on aphids farmed by ants since the ants would probably attack the snail. But I like the idea zorst using a 'pest' against a pest!

[radular]

It would be interesting, but I suspect it would really only work on a small scale.

This said, I want to thank you all for your advice. Last night after arriving home from a long holiday trip, I found two of my snails courting, with a dart in the flank of one animal. This morning I found two discarded love darts (I was able to save one in a vial with a label; the other crumbled as I tried to remove it from the wall of the tank). I'm guessing that either the darts were discarded because the animals lost interest in mating due to my accidental interruption, or they had served their purpose and I might get some eggs in a couple weeks?

[Zorst]

Yeah the eating of the sap suckers was interesting, Ive a friend whose partners a biologist it was them that confirmed that these snails do indeed eat aphids. So my eyes weren't deceiving me Ive since read it somewhere as well I'll try n find the link again n post it. Its all to do with permaculture an basically working with rather than against nature, you can check it out online but I'll say the results I got last year growing stuff this way its well worth it and its totally chemical free. So the rug rats rescued snails now have work which is another good reason to keep them around.

I've very large poly tunnels as I have a mountain farm here n used a bed in half the size of one of them with the snails, it had a pretty good success rate plants wise, So I'll see how it go's next spring n summer and increase the snails in there. Hey I don't mind planting some extra snail friendly food n leaving some cuttle fish about as well n loosing a bit of veg to them if they keep the sap suckers at bay.

If we get to many snails then the rug rats can collect the snails and move them back outside to the hedge rows so every one's still happy.

Hope that you get some eggs radular keep us posted on that one.

Zorst

[radular]

"poly tunnel"?
Any who, I'll keep you all posted as things develop. Since my last post, I've seen more signs of mating (my largest animal now has a slightly swollen mantle & I found another discarded love dart.) I hope to eventually take photos of my collection.

[wreckoning]

Jan 4, 2014 2:41:58 GMT radular said:

 Since my last post, I've seen more signs of mating (my largest animal now has a slightly swollen mantle & I found another discarded love dart.) I hope to eventually take photos of my collection.

You found a love dart? Fascinating, I've never seen one! Please post a picture of it!

[radular]

Jan 4, 2014 9:25:21 GMT wreckoning said:

Jan 4, 2014 2:41:58 GMT radular said:

 Since my last post, I've seen more signs of mating (my largest animal now has a slightly swollen mantle & I found another discarded love dart.) I hope to eventually take photos of my collection.

You found a love dart? Fascinating, I've never seen one! Please post a picture of it!

In all, I've found three love darts, though the first one was destroyed trying to remove it from the wall of the terrarium (it had been cemented in place by dried mucus). This one is the third one and is chipped at the tip (my fault) but retains much of the shape. Sorry for the quality of the photo and the distracting background: I'm still trying to figure out how to get sharper images with my microscope, and the background is the light being reflected off of the black microscope stage.
The whole thing is actually surprisingly large considering the animal that the dart was impaled into: This dart, albeit damaged, measures 7 mm in length. It probably was maybe only half a millimeter longer before being damaged, though...

The conical back part of the dart is totally hollow & on close examination shows striations from when it was being formed through successive layers of calcium carbonate being deposited. The shaft of the dart is ridged, which you can still see on this one.
Here's a rough diagram online of what the dart should look like in profile and in cross-section of the dart's shaft.

[wreckoning]

Amazing, thanks for the picture!

[radular]

Update: I've been seeing a fair amount of signs that there have been matings, though no eggs. I think it's just too soon. This said, I was wondering how deep do these snails tend to bury their eggs? I need to do a substrate change to keep things clean and want to know how deep the material should be (about two and a half inches?)

[vallery]

My Cepaea nemoralis and Cepaea hortensis breed all year round. Some are awake while others are asleep. There doesn't seem to be any seasonal breeding with mine. My Pleurodonte and Trumpets and slug all do the same thing.

[Zorst]

Great picture of the drat n glad to hear that they are mating.

Poly tunnels are large long clear plastic covered tunnels for growing fruit n veg in, it extends the growing season as it protects the plants much like a green house but far cheaper to put up. Naturally snails love them as there are so few predators who get inside to get inside and eat them.

Zorst

[radular]

Zorst: Oh, I think I've seen those before. I just thought they were make-shift greenhouses; I didn't realize they had a name of their own. Yes, I can absolutely see how slugs and snails would love a structure like that to stay warm in winter!

Vallery: That's reassuring to hear. My snails have been doing something similar: it seems like in each tank every time I check there's always one or two snails that have 'disappeared' and don't show themselves for several days unless I disturb them in my periodic cleanings. It's interesting how out-of-sink captivity seems to make them. I've read from others on this forum that stress can make them go into dormancy, so I wonder if that might be one reason they still 'disappear' from time to time.