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Post by etana on Jul 19, 2014 9:31:55 GMT
Finally I was able to get a picture of this facial expression that my snails sometimes do. Look:   He's sitting completely still, his eye stalks straight up (sometimes they have them even closer to each other, very nearly touching), and they spin the very tips of the stalks (eyeballs + a couple millimeters of the stalks) in small circles. In this state, they don't change expression when another snail slimes by. And they can stay this way for several minutes. One time an Arianta and a Cepaea were eating the same piece of kitten food, the Cepaea went too near, the Arianta bit him in the face (I saw his mouth going, and the Cepaea retracted super quickly and then promptly walked away), and the Arianta had this expression for a while as he continued eating. Sometimes they'll also lift their head up, take the front edge of their foot into their mouth, retract the lower tentacles, and then spin the eyeballs. It looks even scarier than what this snail is doing in my pictures here. Do bigger snails make this face? And what do you think it is anyway? It looks intimidating and aggressive to me, especially since it was used in the biting situation described above, but I could still be wrong. |
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Post by etana on Jul 19, 2014 20:39:05 GMT
Yet another observation of this expression - I was cleaning, and by accident hit a snail in the eye. He retracted it, went with just one eye for a bit, and when he pushed the other eye back out again, it was right into the position in these pictures.
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Post by crucify on Jul 19, 2014 22:45:34 GMT
Mine do that particular expression while eating something they particularly enjoy. Either there's some form of snail aggression we're not too aware of, or they were so busy stuffing their face, they didn't stop to make sure they were actually eating the right thing.
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Post by etana on Jul 20, 2014 4:51:06 GMT
Should that read "something they don't particularly enjoy"?  It could indeed be just an annoyed face, or one of dislike. I've seen my snails this way also when they're attached to walls or other non-edible things. Maybe I'll take more pictures and post here, with the hopes that we can make out a pattern and learn more about snail behaviour. |
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Post by barnaclesnail on Jul 23, 2014 2:20:14 GMT
I think that's the "on the alert" position  |
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Post by etana on Jul 23, 2014 7:57:04 GMT
Could be true, barnaclesnail! Yesterday it was very hot, and at some point one Arianta climbed up the wall of the tank, stopped, and made this face for a long time. I think he was mostly annoyed with the weather. I sprayed him, he first retracted but then extended back out, straightened his face and went on to bathe in his water dish.  |
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Post by starcrazy19 on Jul 23, 2014 21:54:53 GMT
Mine do that when they're eating something they like. They also droop their eyes sometimes when they're eating something they like and stare straight at the food, so I confess I don't have much idea what they're thinking sometimes!
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Post by etana on Jul 24, 2014 5:56:51 GMT
Mine stare down at their favourite foods as well. It's so funny! Like they want a deeper experience of the yumminess with multiple senses. Hmmmmm... I definitely must try and take a picture of the "worse" version of this expression, with the raised head and foot in mouth. Because they definitely don't do that one regarding eating. It's just so mesmerising, I forget I should photograph, and just stare back! |
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Post by malacophile on Jul 25, 2014 1:13:46 GMT
My fulicas make a face like that when they first wake up, or when I bother them after they've just woken up. I'm guessing my snails are not "morning people".  They look so grumpy when they do that. And on the topic of snail aggression... Do snails typically display aggression toward one another? I've never seen it from any of my own- they all seem to get along in perfect slimy harmony. But I would think that surely they have their disagreements? So is it that they always get along, or do they just display hostility in ways that I'm not noticing? |
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Post by etana on Jul 25, 2014 9:55:38 GMT
Hehehe! I can only imagine the grumpy look on a big snail face (as I'm still waiting to get my first Achatina)... and I'm laughing here, though poor things, I understand so well, I too am very slow in the mornings I wonder if snail aggression has to do with my current snails being small, wild-caught Finnish snails that may need to be a bit more aggressive to survive out there? Usually my snails are nice and gentle with each other, but the "biting" incident I described in the beginning of the thread has happened twice now. Both times it was over a small piece of kitten food that one snail sat on and another one tried to eat. I've also seen a snail try to flirt with another one and get the cold shell, literally - the other snail turned around so that his shell was very much in the flirty one's face, forcing him to retract, and this happened a couple more times between these two snails. Turns out though that the other snail was ill and passed away quite soon after that, which explains why he wasn't in the mood. |
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Post by etana on Aug 15, 2014 17:48:03 GMT
Hey! I finally got a photo of the very look I was talking about in the first place!  As you can see he appears to be biting/sucking the edge of his foot and his whole face is all inwards (man, I'm jealous of that soft, boneless face and its potential for expression, lol). And he spins his eyeballs. Looks very annoyed/aggressive to me! I've very recently noticed that sometimes they have this face when they've woken up to poop, but this one didn't do that, he just stayed this way for a long time after I flipped over the lid he was hanging from, and then he just straightened his face and slimed off. |
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Post by cliath on Aug 16, 2014 23:14:20 GMT
Very good photos. I've never known any of my snails to be aggressive, but then I don't watch them 24/7 (although I do watch a lot  ). I had two slugs once and, even though they had a huge tank and plenty of food, one had killed the other.l I think slugs are a lot more violent than snails, but your observations are interesting. |
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Post by etana on Aug 18, 2014 6:08:31 GMT
Thanks! Lol, I don't watch them 24/7 either, wish I could - but I do sometimes just forget about everything and stare at them, and catch strange phenomena. I recently separated my Ariantas from my Cepaeas, because the only fights I ever saw were inter-species, and they appeared to not be keen about living in the same tank anyway, with all the avoiding of each other, etc. |
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latebloomer
Achatina immaculata
The Snail Botherer
Posts: 251
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Post by latebloomer on Aug 18, 2014 10:43:58 GMT
My younger snails do this sometimes and I interpret it as "I am keeping a close watch on you"
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Post by cliath on Aug 18, 2014 15:23:57 GMT
Perhaps those fights were about protecting the species, the Arianta didn't want the Cepaea to eat food that the other Ariantas could be eating. So the arianta was trying to insure that the airantas are the stronger species. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but I explained it as best as as I could. |
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Post by etana on Aug 18, 2014 18:12:46 GMT
My younger snails do this sometimes and I interpret it as "I am keeping a close watch on you" Quite possibly right! |
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Post by etana on Aug 18, 2014 18:19:57 GMT
Perhaps those fights were about protecting the species, the Arianta didn't want the Cepaea to eat food that the other Ariantas could be eating. So the arianta was trying to insure that the airantas are the stronger species. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but I explained it as best as as I could. It makes sense yes, though I'm not sure that snails would think so broadly of the survival of their own kind when it comes to techniques such as sharing food. To me it's looked more like "that snail, that is not my kind at all, is sitting and chewing on something delicious that I'd rather eat right now. I'll take it even if I have to fight". I'm currently not sure if they'd do it primarily to take food away from the other species; would be interesting if they did! |
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Post by etana on Aug 20, 2014 8:58:44 GMT
Hmmmmm, I'm changing tanks here and I (temporarily, I've realised) put some of my Ariantas and Cepaeas back together, hoping they'd get along better now that there's more space, more food, and more things to do. And what do you know, I had Rudolf the big, scarred Arianta placing his big, rough shell right in the face of a Cepaea half his size, and even moving and turning it. Must have been very unpleasant to the little Cepaea! It also looked like Rudolf pinned the same Cepaea into a corner and didn't let her move. I had to interfere because Rudolf was really PUSHING the Cepaea down.
Looks like I do have to get back to one of my earlier ideas, which was to build a wall in this new, big tank and have the different species at different sides of it.
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Post by cliath on Aug 20, 2014 16:09:50 GMT
The wall is a good idea.
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Post by etana on Aug 20, 2014 16:23:23 GMT
Agreed. I only have to figure out how I want to do it.
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Post by cliath on Aug 20, 2014 18:41:02 GMT
You could use plain plastic. But if you want the snails to interact but not get hurt you could use fly screen or mesh.
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They look so grumpy when they do that.
).