White lipped (Oh so many photos) EGGS!

[nailvarnish]

So these are my new arrivals, I'm hoping they breed so I can continue with the hatchlings and then release the adults back.
I spent ages trying to find a rose or brown morph as I read somewhere that the allele for Brown and pink is dominant to yellow, and the only white lipped snails in my area are either unbanded yellow or yellow with 5 bands (however the article was on C.Nemoralis, so hopefully it will be the same for Hortensis), so 41 snails later I found 2 pinky / purple Cepaeas close to adult hood if not already there!

I kept a very pale yellow 5 banded morph, a 5 banded morph with black flesh and a bright yellow unbanded morph. So out of the 41 snails I kept 5 and released the others into my garden to add more variety. They're currently in a medium sized candle jar that was originally a mini terrarium, but they're only in this for a little longer as I'm waiting for their terrarium to grow a little bit more, it's nothing impressive I just want it to be more grown so it's had time to adjust before the snails most likely bulldoze the whole lot!

Anyway here's the pictures!
Future Terrarium


The snails























Hope you enjoyed, I'll keep posting pictures to this thread from now on! (Sorry for bad quality photos)

[lox]

Cute! Im sure they're happy in their new home!

[etana]

Soooo pretty! The black-footed one made me go wow!

Reminds me to take group photos of my Cepaea too, there was discussion on the board about whether mine are C. hortensis or nemoralis (I had snails with different lip colours mate successfully, and apparently there is a white-lipped mutation of C. nemoralis) and I promised to take close-ups, but then they went into hibernation. They're waking up though so I can get back to the subject!

[teessnails]

How gorgeous! I wish we had Cepaea where I am, they have such lovely coloring and diversity!

[cliath]

You have one there with particularly dark skin, he's gorgeous! Lovely snails and great photos

[mangoandlemon]

I Am SO Jealous!

[nailvarnish]

Thanks for all your lovely comments! I went to a garden centre yesterday and picked up a nice medium sized propagator with a sturdy lid  and an adjustable air vent. I'm visiting family this weekend, so I'm going to take a few cuttings of plants for the terrarium and pick up some more moss and hopefully it'll be ready in a few weeks!

He's quite shy / skittish at the moment but hopefully he'll relax soon

I'm still not quite sure on her morph, in some lights she's a light shade of purple / brown but in other lighting she can have a pink tint to her shell...

This one is very confident, completely fine with me picking him up, I'm in love with the bright yellow of his shell!

She's skittish as well and once startled she'll stay retracted for quite a long time; roughly up to 15 minuets.

He's got delicate growth on his shell and not quite an adult so I've provided cuttle bone. But he like the yellow morph is very active and confident. Very enjoyable to watch and take pictures of. His shell is a very pale yellow and is pretty much white! Reminds me of the Vindobonensis (They're so gorgeous! Definitely on my must have list)

All five of them in a nice group-conga photo (reminds me of a family photo)



The two very skittish snails 'playing' together

As you can tell the to skittish snails are hesitant to join in the mass shell climbing expedition as the others!


But eventually one of them decided it was time for a piggy back and joined the confident pinky cepaea


The poor skittish pinky one just doesn't want to come out and join the others


This is their future terrarium (Much better than the bird food fat-balls container in my opinion!)
And you can see the adjustable air vent at the top

The inside is looking very sparse at the moment but with some more moss (and hopefully it'll grow eventually and spread), some ferns and extra plants, it'll eventually look appeasing for my desk!

[etana]

Great photos.

[lox]

I've never seen the darker skinned colour morph before, now I have! How did you make your avatar, it looks amazing.

[nailvarnish]

Apr 7, 2015 13:44:55 GMT lox said:

I've never seen the darker skinned colour morph before, now I have! How did you make your avatar, it looks amazing.

I've not come across them either so I decided he was worth keeping!
Thank you! I just edited one of the previous photos in photoshop I'm pleased with how it came out

[Cashell]

Spectacular thread! Seeing these makes me even more anxious for the weather to warm up, so I can collect my own multi-colored cepaeas!

[nailvarnish]

Apr 8, 2015 3:40:53 GMT Cashell said:

Spectacular thread! Seeing these makes me even more anxious for the weather to warm up, so I can collect my own multi-colored cepaeas!

Thankyou!
Yeah we've recently had warm weather up to 19*C here just in time for easter! On Easter sunday (I think it's called that) my grandparents decided to invite me for a nice day out to a large park and it was so warm and lovely, on the way back from there I found the 2 pinkish morphs (going to have to come up with names for these) even though we had spent almost all day searching for them in the park (though I did get to find the other 3 that i've got there). I'm just hoping they'll breed... there's nothing cuter than tiny snails and watching them develop their colour morphs! 

[sparrow]

All you snails are beautiful! They look like little acrobats getting ready to form a standing pyramid in some photos! Very cute!

[nailvarnish]

So I visited my family in the countryside and I brought back lots of new things...
I got the terrarium all planted, I'm just going to leave it for a week before moving the snails in


I also found so many Cepaea and a lot of rose / red Nemoralis morphs so I'm pleased with that. We don't have C.nemoralis where I live so I was surprised when I saw just how big they are compared to white lipped!

(Both are adults; Nemoralis on the bottom, Hortensis on the top)


(Is this an Arianta?)

(Any ideas on this little guys specie?)

He has little pale bands

One of the deep red morphs

Probably my best picture yet!

A paler pink morph

Any ideas on this guy? I was thinking C.Hortensis but i've never seen the varied band sizes and colours on one shell... reminds me of a Vindobonensis but I could be wrong

Any ideas on this guy as well? I was thinking Monacha Cantiana but he has an ombre effect on his shell (It goes very pale at the opening with some dabbled red) 
Hope you enjoy!

[Zorst]

Some really great photo's of some nice looking snails.

Zorst

[nailvarnish]

Thank you! I'm so glad I found them.

[nailvarnish]

Here's some more photos of my little collection

(He's grown so much within a week and a bit!)

[nailvarnish]

An update on the snails in their new terrarium
The terrarium


The snails

This little guy has had some new growth

So has this one, i'm pretty sure he's finished growing now and just needs to form a lip on his shell (he's grown a half whorl within 2 weeks!)


(My favourite; such a vibrant red morph!)

Already straight to burrowing into the moss


Within an hour they had all found spots to burrow into the moss
 
I came back to find these lot all in a cluster (there's also one on the underside of the fern leaf)

Yet another burrowing


Also when spraying the terrarium I found this little hitchhiker who I'm guessing is an Oxychilus

[etana]

The snails look very lovely, and I'm sure they're happy in all that moss.

[Zorst]

I have to say as much as I love the GALS, i really do have a soft spot for the Cepaea and Arianta's that I have here.

I collected some more Cepaea's from the dunes a week or so back and they have really settled into there tanks well. I overwintered the Cepaea's and Arianta's mixed in 2 large plastic tank this time so am now wondering as they get on so will if I should just have 2 mixed tanks of them. There egg sizes are different and the young all go into a mixed tank to grow on so I may just leave them mixed.

I just love all of there crazy color combinations, they just look so cool and are all really friendly snails.

Zorst

[nailvarnish]

I've not been active lately due to exams but I thought i'd share my news with you guys: My snails have laid eggs! Very excited and I suspect the babies are Nemoralis...

I found 2 batches and 1 had already hatched so I transferred them all to a separate container of their own so I can keep track of them.

[Zorst]

Congrats on the babies. they sure are cute.

Zorst

[lox]

Adorable! I'm hoping for my GALS to lay eggs because I got a new Fulica yesterday.

[TKSnails]

Beautiful Cepea ! How do you tell the difference between white/brown lipped ? You have a beautiful group of snails, were they wild caught or captive bred ?

[nailvarnish]

May 17, 2015 8:43:04 GMT TKSnails said:

Beautiful Cepea ! How do you tell the difference between white/brown lipped ? You have a beautiful group of snails, were they wild caught or captive bred ?

Thankyou! They're all wild caught but have bred while in captivity. Brown lipped snails (Nemoralis) tend to be larger than the white lipped (Hortensis), and when they are fully grown they form a brown coloured lip the same as the white lipped snails form a white lip. Once the babies grow larger I'll most likely release the adults back into the wild and carry on from the captive bred babies.