Post by snowlark on May 4, 2017 11:06:12 GMT
Heya! I have 7 wild-caught helix aspera. Most of them have been rescues for some shell injury or another. I live in New Zealand.
My issue is.... complicated. I'll walk you through the events chronologically:
1. When I set my tank up, I used topsoil from the garden (I wouldn't do this in the future, but I didn't know any better at the time.) Naturally, this soil contained springtails (the elongated white variety) and probably other small soil insects. The top of the tank is closed by a piece of mesh with two strips of magnet holding it down.
2. My snails did not produce any offspring for about a year, despite coupling a lot. Then, suddenly, multiple clutches appeared and hatched within the space of a couple of weeks. I had a LOT of snail hatchlings.
3. The hatchlings mostly chose to sleep on the glass at the top in big groups. I noticed that most of the ones on the glass didn't really come down for food and took to gently brushing them off onto a leaf before placing it down in the food dish. When I did this, they would eat and then mostly ascend the glass again to sleep. (they had an upturned pot + some wandering jew plants available to them for shelter; a lot of babies did shelter under the wandering jew.)
4. I released about two thirds of them in case their behaviour was related to overpopulation.
5. As time progressed, I noticed a few tiny empty shells on the dirt, often slightly underground (visible through the tank wall's cross-section.) On more than one occasion I saw springtails swarming inside the shell. It was only ever very tiny snails. So I think: did the springtails eat the baby? Or did it die and then get eaten? Knowing that the springtails will easily get inside of and gut sunflower seeds I put in the terrarium for sprouting purposes, I really really really was not sure, despite everything online saying they where detritivores only.
6. Springtail population expanded to the point where anything left on the dirt would be swarming with them by the next morning - or faster if it were something like apple or cooked broccoli. Young snails who were trying to eat the food would get covered in springtails. I would see the adults attached to the wall with springtails on their shells/between their foot and the glass. I saw a springtail enter a snail's pneumostome.
7. I decided I should finally change my substrate over to something sterilized/controlled, and try to eliminate the springtails in the process, just in case. I bought some organic compost and dried sphagnum moss from a garden store and moved my snails into temporary containment to 'de-contaminate' them of any springtails, soil mites etc that might be hanging on to them. I used sphagnum moss soaked with tap water as padding on the bottom of the adults' jar, and released most of the smaller juveniles, keeping about ten of the larger ones to raise to adulthood before release. They are in a separate container currently.
8. My snails enjoy burrowing into the moss and seem generally lively and happy in their temporary home, where they've been for a week or two now. However I noticed today that the outer layer of one of the adult's shells seemed to be almost flaking off, leaving a large, contiguous bleached looking patch that is ever so slightly indented. It's only one of the snails so far (though there is a small discoloration on one other.) I'm worried it's something to do with the moss? They seem to love it but I've never used it for them before.
9. The adult snails have also been looking more swollen around the mantle and tend to sleep with more of their bodies outside their shells. It's only really evident with two of them, and they've all mated since I moved them to the temporary enclosure, so I assumed it was due to that but I'm wondering if it could have something to do with the moss being more damp than they're used to.
The baby snails, in the other container, have been doing fine, from what I can tell. They have a smallish piece of sphagnum moss for moisture.
That's events so far.
Finally I thought I'd describe my new setup (which I haven't made yet because I've been so unsure what to do about the springtails) so I can hopefully avoid making any glaring mistakes.
The substrate will be a mixture of sphagnum moss (the kind sold for orchids) and organic compost/soil. The compost came with springtails etc already in it so I am debating whether I should sterilize it or not.
It will have a hosta planted in it. The soil around the hosta is the regular topsoil you get plants in from a garden store. I plan to make sure this soil is covered by my substrate.
It will have planted cuttings of wandering jew as a shelter plant.
I plan to introduce a few woodlice and limax flavus from my other enclosure to act as decomposers, hopefully ones that won't bother the snails to the same extent.
I have bought hypoaspis in the past in an effort to combat the springtail overpopulation, but it didn't really work long term. The mites were also packaged with a feeder mite of unlabeled species which I only realized when I went back to the website later and I don't really want to introduce another variable.
I feed my snails a diet of lettuce (generally green oak, coral and cos types, never iceberg), bok choy, cooked brocolli stalks, carrot, kale, apple and sprouted birdseed, with the occasional addition of kumara, mushroom, brewer's yeast or pumpkin. They have a cuttlebone available to them at all times and I sometimes put a powdered calcium supplement mixed with water in dots on the tank walls. (it's for laying hens but they seem to like it more than the cuttlebone.)
So, my questions are:
- Why might the tiny baby snails have been dying?
- What to do about springtails, if anything?
- Cause of swelling?
- Cause of shell whitening? Is it harmful?
- Should I sterilize or maybe rinse the compost before use?
- I read around about coco fiber substrates and found a lot of accounts of snails not liking it or it having a bad smell or both, whilst some people seem to swear by it. What's the deal there?
- Anything else I should know?
My issue is.... complicated. I'll walk you through the events chronologically:
1. When I set my tank up, I used topsoil from the garden (I wouldn't do this in the future, but I didn't know any better at the time.) Naturally, this soil contained springtails (the elongated white variety) and probably other small soil insects. The top of the tank is closed by a piece of mesh with two strips of magnet holding it down.
2. My snails did not produce any offspring for about a year, despite coupling a lot. Then, suddenly, multiple clutches appeared and hatched within the space of a couple of weeks. I had a LOT of snail hatchlings.
3. The hatchlings mostly chose to sleep on the glass at the top in big groups. I noticed that most of the ones on the glass didn't really come down for food and took to gently brushing them off onto a leaf before placing it down in the food dish. When I did this, they would eat and then mostly ascend the glass again to sleep. (they had an upturned pot + some wandering jew plants available to them for shelter; a lot of babies did shelter under the wandering jew.)
4. I released about two thirds of them in case their behaviour was related to overpopulation.
5. As time progressed, I noticed a few tiny empty shells on the dirt, often slightly underground (visible through the tank wall's cross-section.) On more than one occasion I saw springtails swarming inside the shell. It was only ever very tiny snails. So I think: did the springtails eat the baby? Or did it die and then get eaten? Knowing that the springtails will easily get inside of and gut sunflower seeds I put in the terrarium for sprouting purposes, I really really really was not sure, despite everything online saying they where detritivores only.
6. Springtail population expanded to the point where anything left on the dirt would be swarming with them by the next morning - or faster if it were something like apple or cooked broccoli. Young snails who were trying to eat the food would get covered in springtails. I would see the adults attached to the wall with springtails on their shells/between their foot and the glass. I saw a springtail enter a snail's pneumostome.
7. I decided I should finally change my substrate over to something sterilized/controlled, and try to eliminate the springtails in the process, just in case. I bought some organic compost and dried sphagnum moss from a garden store and moved my snails into temporary containment to 'de-contaminate' them of any springtails, soil mites etc that might be hanging on to them. I used sphagnum moss soaked with tap water as padding on the bottom of the adults' jar, and released most of the smaller juveniles, keeping about ten of the larger ones to raise to adulthood before release. They are in a separate container currently.
8. My snails enjoy burrowing into the moss and seem generally lively and happy in their temporary home, where they've been for a week or two now. However I noticed today that the outer layer of one of the adult's shells seemed to be almost flaking off, leaving a large, contiguous bleached looking patch that is ever so slightly indented. It's only one of the snails so far (though there is a small discoloration on one other.) I'm worried it's something to do with the moss? They seem to love it but I've never used it for them before.
9. The adult snails have also been looking more swollen around the mantle and tend to sleep with more of their bodies outside their shells. It's only really evident with two of them, and they've all mated since I moved them to the temporary enclosure, so I assumed it was due to that but I'm wondering if it could have something to do with the moss being more damp than they're used to.
The baby snails, in the other container, have been doing fine, from what I can tell. They have a smallish piece of sphagnum moss for moisture.
That's events so far.
Finally I thought I'd describe my new setup (which I haven't made yet because I've been so unsure what to do about the springtails) so I can hopefully avoid making any glaring mistakes.
The substrate will be a mixture of sphagnum moss (the kind sold for orchids) and organic compost/soil. The compost came with springtails etc already in it so I am debating whether I should sterilize it or not.
It will have a hosta planted in it. The soil around the hosta is the regular topsoil you get plants in from a garden store. I plan to make sure this soil is covered by my substrate.
It will have planted cuttings of wandering jew as a shelter plant.
I plan to introduce a few woodlice and limax flavus from my other enclosure to act as decomposers, hopefully ones that won't bother the snails to the same extent.
I have bought hypoaspis in the past in an effort to combat the springtail overpopulation, but it didn't really work long term. The mites were also packaged with a feeder mite of unlabeled species which I only realized when I went back to the website later and I don't really want to introduce another variable.
I feed my snails a diet of lettuce (generally green oak, coral and cos types, never iceberg), bok choy, cooked brocolli stalks, carrot, kale, apple and sprouted birdseed, with the occasional addition of kumara, mushroom, brewer's yeast or pumpkin. They have a cuttlebone available to them at all times and I sometimes put a powdered calcium supplement mixed with water in dots on the tank walls. (it's for laying hens but they seem to like it more than the cuttlebone.)
So, my questions are:
- Why might the tiny baby snails have been dying?
- What to do about springtails, if anything?
- Cause of swelling?
- Cause of shell whitening? Is it harmful?
- Should I sterilize or maybe rinse the compost before use?
- I read around about coco fiber substrates and found a lot of accounts of snails not liking it or it having a bad smell or both, whilst some people seem to swear by it. What's the deal there?
- Anything else I should know?
