Post by patrickmurtha on Apr 12, 2015 16:01:49 GMT
There was a heavy rainfall in Queretaro overnight, so I was out snail collecting this morning and had great success. This was the second time I've collected snails after a rainfall here. The first batch that I collected a couple of weeks ago have adjusted well to the tank.
My mortality rate is way down. It was too high when I first established the tank in Queretaro in December (after my window box experiment in Mexico City). I do research here and at www.petsnails.co.uk/, but sometimes it is hard to figure out what has done a snail in. One thing is for sure, once a snail looks sick, I have not had it recover. I remove the sickly ones pretty fast in case the problem might be potentially contagious to the other snails. I had a couple of soft or cracked shells early on, but not lately. The few recent casualties have usually been cases of deep retraction. There were also a couple whom I discovered lifeless with their bodies hanging out of their shells. Of course I am always sad when I have a death, but I move on and continue to try to provide good care.
I continue to find what look like different species of isopods, and I keep adding them to the habitat. They are such fun little critters.
The one Orthoporus ornatus, Texas golden millipede, that I collected surfaces occasionally, and seems to be fine.
Today, along with Helix aspersa and isopods, I found a very large woolly caterpillar, black with red stripes. Apparently this is a Giant Leopard Moth Caterpillar, and it is very handsome. I checked to make sure that it poses no threat to baby snails or isopods, and it does not; it only eats vegetable matter, mainly leafy vegetables of much the same type that the snails like. So it would seem to be a compatible tank-mate, and I am happy to have it. Do any of you have experience co-housing snails and caterpillars?
I have not established a separate Rumina decollata habitat yet, but I am still considering doing so.
My mortality rate is way down. It was too high when I first established the tank in Queretaro in December (after my window box experiment in Mexico City). I do research here and at www.petsnails.co.uk/, but sometimes it is hard to figure out what has done a snail in. One thing is for sure, once a snail looks sick, I have not had it recover. I remove the sickly ones pretty fast in case the problem might be potentially contagious to the other snails. I had a couple of soft or cracked shells early on, but not lately. The few recent casualties have usually been cases of deep retraction. There were also a couple whom I discovered lifeless with their bodies hanging out of their shells. Of course I am always sad when I have a death, but I move on and continue to try to provide good care.
I continue to find what look like different species of isopods, and I keep adding them to the habitat. They are such fun little critters.
The one Orthoporus ornatus, Texas golden millipede, that I collected surfaces occasionally, and seems to be fine.
Today, along with Helix aspersa and isopods, I found a very large woolly caterpillar, black with red stripes. Apparently this is a Giant Leopard Moth Caterpillar, and it is very handsome. I checked to make sure that it poses no threat to baby snails or isopods, and it does not; it only eats vegetable matter, mainly leafy vegetables of much the same type that the snails like. So it would seem to be a compatible tank-mate, and I am happy to have it. Do any of you have experience co-housing snails and caterpillars?
I have not established a separate Rumina decollata habitat yet, but I am still considering doing so.
