What is Cornu aspersum (Helix aspersa) growth rate?

[elsiefibonacci]

I have some babies that range in sizes by a lot. I just want to know if anyone here has had experience with growing Helix aspersa and knows what is the size average they should be depending on weeks/months/years.

[snailboat]

I read once that healthy, well-fed Helix aspersa can reach adulthood in 11-12 weeks on average. But I think it varies. One of my snails hatched 15 days later than the rest of the clutch and took seven months to reach full size.  She's a little special and I think sometimes she's had a hard time building her shell compared to the other snails.  Every snail is different!

I was trying to find the paper where I read the 11-12 weeks figure, and I found a different paper instead, which says:

Under our experimental conditions, 〜130 eggs on average are laid by each pair of snails (Bonnet et al. 1990). The definition of sexual maturity was the standard one based on judging whether the peristome (edge of the aperture of the shell) was reflected. A sexually mature snail weighs 10 g on average with an empirical standard deviation of 1.8 g and is 8–20 weeks old.

The data consist of 22,033 adult weights collected over 11 discrete generations, spanning the period from 1991 until 2002. Animals were reared at the experimental unit of INRA-Le Magneraud. The line was maintained with 120 animals chosen from 30 families, with an equal number from each family. Mating among the 120 snails was at random, with the restriction that full-sibs were not allowed to mate.

So it looks like they raised tens of thousands of snails, and their snails reached adulthood between 8-20 weeks.

[etana]

11 generations of snails and lots of math around it all. How cool is that.

[elsiefibonacci]

Aug 4, 2014 10:48:21 GMT snailboat said:

I read once that healthy, well-fed Helix aspersa can reach adulthood in 11-12 weeks on average. But I think it varies. One of my snails hatched 15 days later than the rest of the clutch and took seven months to reach full size.  She's a little special and I think sometimes she's had a hard time building her shell compared to the other snails.  Every snail is different!

I was trying to find the paper where I read the 11-12 weeks figure, and I found a different paper instead, which says:

Under our experimental conditions, 〜130 eggs on average are laid by each pair of snails (Bonnet et al. 1990). The definition of sexual maturity was the standard one based on judging whether the peristome (edge of the aperture of the shell) was reflected. A sexually mature snail weighs 10 g on average with an empirical standard deviation of 1.8 g and is 8–20 weeks old.

The data consist of 22,033 adult weights collected over 11 discrete generations, spanning the period from 1991 until 2002. Animals were reared at the experimental unit of INRA-Le Magneraud. The line was maintained with 120 animals chosen from 30 families, with an equal number from each family. Mating among the 120 snails was at random, with the restriction that full-sibs were not allowed to mate.

So it looks like they raised tens of thousands of snails, and their snails reached adulthood between 8-20 weeks.

Ah! Thanks! This is awesome info. Maybe with the next batch I can document the growth rate and compare to this.