I thought I clipped down the lid and hatches...

[etana]

Argh, snail keeping keeps on surprising me. I got back to my snails the other day after having them snail-sitted for a couple weeks, and I've had them spend nights on the balcony because it's calmer there than it is indoors at nights. And as the header says I was quite sure I'd clipped down the lid and the hatches, yet today I noticed a wide, silvery shine snail-trail on the balcony wall. 

The trail went first up, made a loop, then towards the balcony edge, and then down, to the gap at the bottom. And this is a third floor apartment.

I must take pictures before I wash the trail. 

My black Arianta, the one I called Old Grumpy, appears to be missing. I think ATM that that's all, but I'll count my snails tomorrow to be entirely sure. The trail looks single snail wide, but they might have followed each other. I knew from experience that snails could push open very light lids that aren't clipped down, but I never thought that they could actually even use an unlocked hatch (not that I kept them unlocked on purpose, but this should teach me to check them).

Old Grumpy always had attitude, though. He was my first snail, the first I found that come out of hibernation outside in the spring, and he had a whole lot of character to him. I hope his escape was safe and that he's happy now. He had a lot of babies with Big Eyes so hopefully they'll grow up to be pretty, big eyed snails with attitude. 

[cliath]

Oh dear, poor you. You might find old grumpy again, a few months ago I let some of my WC helix aspersa out but marked their shells and I've seen two of them recently.
Snails are pesky creatures.
Good luck!

[malacophile]

Although I'm sorry Old Grumpy got away (for now!), I love hearing stories like this. It just demonstrates that snails are truly intelligent and cunning little critters!

[etana]

Thanks, both. And yes Malacophile, I miss him but I'm also smiling, because he showed so much determination by escaping! My clever little snail.

[Zorst]

Ahh Snails are cleaver for sure, I sure hope you find old grumpy again. I was cleaning out my room for some visitors to stay and I found that one of the snails from the hospital tank complete with his stuck together shell had made an escape ,he's now safely rounded up again but I have to say he's one strong snail to get the lid up n unclipped top make his escape.

Zorst

[etana]

Wow, a snail with a broken shell would escape like that? Huh.

I don't have very high hopes for finding Old Grumpy, he might have entered someone else's apartment through open windows, or something crazy like that. Who knows though - I'll definitely recognise him if I come across him outside.

[etana]

He's in snaily heaven. Damn.   


He'd crawled around the balcony I guess, and then decided to come indoors (well, better choice than trying to go 3 floors down to the ground, I suppose). The he'd gone all the way across the living room (I don't know how, I haven't found his snail trail indoors and that's quite a long way for a little snail), attached to the side of a cardboard box that was packed for moving, and that's where we found him, dead inside his shell. The last heat wave made this apartment insanely hot and I don't suppose the cardboard exactly helped with retaining his moisture. 

Ahh I'm getting teary...  

[cliath]

I'm very sorry for your loss.

[etana]

Thanks Cliath.

I put his remains back in with the other snails, I'm hoping they'll clean up his shell as I can't bring myself to it.

[Zorst]

Ahh I'm really sorry to hear about Old Grumpy. I always put the shells of snails who have passed on in the base of pot plants and let nature take its course then later re collect and keep the shells.

Zorst

[etana]

Yeah... the other snails and some kind of small worms cleaned up his shell some, but when I tried to finish the cleaning by washing it, the shell somehow broke in my hand. I didn't want to keep such a sad little thing, so I threw it outside so some wild snail can maybe eat it for calcium.

Damn I miss my grumpy little snail. So far he's been the only snail who hasn't been excited about coming indoors - every single other snail has stretched uuuuup and looked all around, Old Grumpy just rasped hard at my hand, not interested at all in where he was, lol. <3

I'm convinced that the last I saw of him was him hiding under the moss with his favourite friend Big Eyes, they were shell against shell very nicely, and they both gave me a weird look when I found them. Snails may be polygamous but these two really liked each other and slept together a lot.

Also, he's not the only snail who escaped that day. It's a bit old news but I thought I'd say it anyway. One of my unnamed Ariantas (one of my many "Snails") is nowhere to be found, I looked many times because I thought he might just be deep in the moss, but he wasn't. Could be that they pushed the unlocked hatch open together, followed each others' snail trails for a little bit (hence the interesting loop on the wall), and then the unnamed Snail chose to go down the outer wall of the building while Old Grumpy chose to come indoors.

I showed Old Grumpy's empty shell to Big Eyes, and I may be reading too much into the snaily body language but it was interesting anyway. Big Eyes poked gently at it three times with a lower tentacle, turned an eye towards it and looked closely for a few seconds, and then turned his head away and rolled up his soft little face, as if he got into a bad mood, a lot like the snail in my avatar (who's just been rejected by the snail he tried to flirt with, poor guy). Maybe in his little mind he got closure about what happened to his favourite snail, I don't know if they think that much but I'd rather err on this side of things than think they don't think.

[cliath]

That's so sad about Big Eyes. It must be hard on the both of yous.

[Zorst]

Hopefully Big eye's will pal up and make a new friend real quick. I know when Seilide (Shellida) lost his first mate he was awfully upset and went off his food, now he has a new Tiger snail for a mate even if its a fraction of his size and they are in a tank with some other GALS they always hang n sleep together. Talk about biggest and smallest in the tank.

Zorst

[etana]

Awwww yeah, Big Eyes would burrow under the moss and retract deeply after Old Grumpy was gone, and he'd snap his breathing hole a LOT as I coaxed him to come out. Meanwhile everyone else snailed around the tank happily. Poor little mourning snail.

Fortunately he's since became more active again, I see him eat and he doesn't deep retract anymore, but he doesn't have a new friend yet.

That's so lovely about the biggest and smallest snail, Zorst. I've collected a couple new Ariantas, but so far they do not seem very interested in Big Eyes (& vice versa). The day Old Grumpy and Big Eyes met, they were doing their mating dance within hours. Snail love at first sight, lol. We'll see what is to come though, I definitely have room for yet more new Ariantas, maybe someone can help the lonely little Big Eyes.

[etana]

I think Big Eyes is becoming friends with Keijo. Not as close as he was with Old Grumpy but still. Yesterday I saw Big Eyes near the sleeping Keijo. I had to move Big Eyes as I was cleaning, but he went ahead and found Keijo again, and pulled his eyestalks in and rested next to him a while!  It was the first time since Old Grumpy went away that I'd seen Big Eyes rest that close to another adult snail.

He also eats a lot these days, and is found among his kids quite often - not sure if the kids find him or if he finds them, but anyway, it looks very cute to see him and a pile of mini versions of him sleeping/eating in the same place.

Also last night he chased Lemon around the tank, climbing on her shell whenever possible, etc. It looked very playful, though I think Lemon didn't appreciate as she kept on running away. Eventually Big Eyes stopped to eat a piece of sweet potato and Lemon was found making quite pissed off facial expressions a little bit farther away. Oh, those snails.

[etana]

Hmmmmm, how very suspicious! I saw Keijo digging tunnels very intently, and the next day I found eggs near where I saw him dig into the soil. I missed the mating, don't know how I managed that, I know they can take hours. So, love is in the air again, but was it with Big Eyes? I actually quite hope so.

Anyway, here are a couple funny pics of Big Eyes, just to celebrate him getting better.


This is him eating a very soft piece of banana, yes his head is entirely inside it.  


Getting his beauty sleep! Such a nice, relaxed sleeping position compared to digging to the bottom of the soil and deep retracting there. The Big Eyes Junior next to him sleeps with his eyestalks out & drooping, hahah.

[Zorst]

Love the fact that Big Eyes seems to have made a friend n possibly found a mate again, and the photo's are great. I sure do hope that the clutch of eggs is partly down to Big Eyes. That would really be great if it was.

Zorst

[etana]

Yes Zorst, me too! And thanks!

I came here to tell interesting little news - now Big Eyes is digging a tunnel too despite having been so active above the ground lately. Before that he had trouble sliming around, as if his shell was much heavier than usually (full of eggs maybe? He's carried some gigantic clutches before). If he lays eggs as well once he's finished the tunnel, I'll be very happy for him and Keijo. 

[muddydragon]

fingers crossed

[Zorst]

Def fingers crossed for Big eyes.
Let us know.

Zorst

[etana]

So far I haven't found any new eggs, but I'll keep searching every few days. They sometimes dig holes when only thinking of laying sometime soon, right?

Big Eyes always took several days longer to lay than Old Grumpy, and he laid much bigger clutches, too, so there's definitely still a possibility.

Yesterday I did find Big Eyes and Keijo resting together again, though.

[cliath]

Glad to hear big eyes has a new friend.