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Post by HazelSnail on Dec 6, 2015 19:19:14 GMT
Well, as the title suggests, I'm having an issue with one of my young zachrysia porsovias... it's eating away at the lip of it's shell, and it is continuing to get worse. They all have access to cuttlebone and a variety of foods, so I'm not sure what could be causing it... I do know that they will sometimes rasp at their shells to smooth them, but this guy is definitely not doing that. And, now another has started to do the same, but not nearly as bad. I did recently move them into a larger enclosure, No clue if that would have anything to do with it or not. I will be quarantining the two that are having this issue, just in case. But, is there anything else I can do to prevent further damage, and does anyone have any idea what's causing this? I have never had an issue like this before. The picture doesn't really show the damage all that well on it's own; zooming in helps show just how much of his upper body is now exposed... Not sure how to upload photos from my laptop, so here's a link: imgur.com/a/tdH4T |
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mangoandlemon
Achatina tincta
Animals are not a choice for me. They are a lifestyle!
Posts: 671 
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Post by mangoandlemon on Dec 7, 2015 16:10:44 GMT
Poor fellow. Is there anything that taste bad for snails that you could smear on?
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Post by etana on Dec 7, 2015 17:21:48 GMT
Ouch.  Does the cuttlebone get rasped by the snails? Sometimes wild caughts don't understand what it is, and need a bit of their favourite taste to be rubbed onto it to encourage them to rasp. What do you have in the tank? |
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Post by HazelSnail on Dec 7, 2015 17:52:55 GMT
Not sure about anything I could rub on it... The cuttlebone definitely gets rasped, there are always growing bite marks in it, and I see it in their poop. I have also tried egg shells, but they don't seem to go over as well. As for their tank; it has eco earth substrate, lots of moss mats, small moss coated stones, sticks for climbing, and a little hollow log hide.
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Cashell
Archachatina puylaerti
Posts: 1,124
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Post by Cashell on Dec 7, 2015 18:53:24 GMT
Your description of how you're caring for them sounds alright, so I wonder if it could just be a bad habit? This kind of reminds me of how some humans are just chronic nail biters, so I wonder if some snails could be the same in a way that they just like to rasp their own shells for no good reason?
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Post by HazelSnail on Dec 7, 2015 20:30:42 GMT
Possibly... I don't know, I've never had any issues with my snails before. I have isolated him, and will keep an eye on it. Hopefully he stops before too much more damage is done...
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Post by HazelSnail on Dec 11, 2015 20:38:04 GMT
Just an update: The worse off snail seems to be doing much better after a few days in isolation. He seems to be repairing his shell rapidly  . The less effected one hasn't gotten any worse, but also no better as of yet. Seems to me it was just some sort of random fluke, and being in a calmer environment alone gave the snail enough rest to recover. Huh, humans can get biting habits, like Cashell said, that can get worse or develop due to stress... Maybe shell-rasping is just the snail equivalent of human nail biting |
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Post by HazelSnail on Dec 15, 2015 1:21:34 GMT
Yet another update: Mystery solved. Yesterday I noticed small white "bugs" crawling around in a pile of snail feces. I looked at a few under my microscope, and they were mites of some kind. When I looked closely at the tank, I noticed them on the snails near their pneustome (close to where the shell damage was occurring). Seems at the time, it wasn't enough of an issue for me to see the mites, but as they grew and reproduced, it became noticeable. I sterilized their tank, baked all substrate and décor, and gave all the snails distilled water baths. Since then, I haven't noticed any more mites, or snails rasping at their shells. So it seems that the mites were irritating the snail, and in attempt to get at them, he was biting his shell, and he improved in a different tank because there were fewer mites. Hopefully that's the end of my mite troubles...
Although it's not really related, I find it interesting that the mite I looked at under the microscope was being parasitized by a mite of another species... I had no idea that mites did that, and it's sort of funny haha
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Post by etana on Dec 15, 2015 11:11:55 GMT
Oh, glad you figured it out. Hopefully the snails will repair their shells now. Keep looking closely though, in case they laid eggs inside the snails. You might have to eventually get Hypoaspis predator mites, as they are able to hunt in the lung cavity too and clean it up, unlike any other method of reducing them (the ones you did). A parasite of a parasite, that is kind of funny.  |
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Does the cuttlebone get rasped by the snails? Sometimes wild caughts don't understand what it is, and need a bit of their favourite taste to be rubbed onto it to encourage them to rasp. 
. The less effected one hasn't gotten any worse, but also no better as of yet. Seems to me it was just some sort of random fluke, and being in a calmer environment alone gave the snail enough rest to recover. 