Emergency! Mold and small flies!

[LouLikesSnails]

So my albino giant african land snail Tofu wasn't eating as much so I decided to put him into a different container for a bit to watch closely if he's eating and pooping properly.

After having him in there for a week, I checked his actual tank which has coconut fibre in it so I can put him back. But inside, around the walls mostly, there was this weird grey looking mold.

The first thing I did is throw away the top layer of the substrate and then mix it. I put some moss in the terrarium and some food. I also put my snail Tofu because I read that mold isn't harmful to snails but I wanna make sure so please help me!!

P.S. I also always find weird little flies in there that are super annoying. Are they harmless and can I do something about them?? I'm also thinking of buying isopods.. should I? Will it help with the mold??

Thanks a lot to anyone willing to help!!
-Lou & Tofu♡

[SuspiciousBagel]

Sorry for the late reply! Yes snails are fine with mold as they are detritivores so they naturally eat rotting food. Its just not great for humans to inhale so especially if you have a pulmonary issue like asthma replacing food more often will not give it enough time to mold. Also feed smaller amounts so less will be wasted and therefore you have less food to grow mold on. Finally, you can try feeding some longer lasting foods like sweet potato, carrots or parsnip. Those make up most of my snail's diet as they're very healthy and nutritious but can go for much longer than fruits or leafy stuff without going bad.

Regarding the flies, they're probably fungus gnats. Theyre attracted to the moisture of the substrate so its pretty hard to get rid of all of them. I just make sure my tank is really well sealed and crush them when i see them. Beware they do lay eggs which hatch into these semi-transparent larvae with black heads. I always find those on food so again if you take out food frequently before it goes bad the gnats will have less of a chance to lay eggs on them. Another option you could consider are buying predatory hypoasis mites which will eat larvae and eggs of fungus gnats and are great control against general nasty stuff you can find in tanks.

Lastly, if you're wondering for Todu too there are many reasons why a snail isn't eating as much- what species are they and are they at the correct temperature and humidity levels? And are they fully grown (which they are around a year old) and/ or is their growth slowing down? If they're at or near their full size they'll stop eating as much as they don't need as many nutrients.

Hope this helps!

[LouLikesSnails]

Hello!! Thanks for answering!! My snail tofu is an albino achatina fulica jade and I don't exactly know how big they get since I've seen pica of them fully grown amd they are as big as a palm and some as big as a hand so I don't know which is true..
Also Tofu's tank is plastic with a lid that has holes everywhere.. so I can't really close it. The humidity of his tank currently is: 75% which is a bit low I think and the temperature is 30°C!! I noticed that humidity got worse when I added some peat moss on top of the coconut fibre..Any advice is appreciated!!

[SuspiciousBagel]

Absolutely no problem! And I do have some advice:
- Fulica especially vary a lot in how big they grow because of some unfortunate bad breeding. The snails that are born with poorer genetics or deformities from inbreeding, breeding at a young age, breeding unhealthy snails etc will usually grow to a smaller size than a fulica snail that is bred well and since snails are often seen as a simple pet for children and there's not much information out there about keeping them very often they DO get badly bred. You'd only be able to know how big your snail will get by asking the size of the parent snails as it will usually be similar to that.
- If the plastic tank has holes everywhere, you'll want to cover them up with plastic wrap or something similar. If humidity is always escaping it is not good for the snail which needs a constantly humid environment. Even if you're upping the humidity often by spraying, using a water dish etc it'll be always going down then back up quickly which the snail will suffer with as, again, they ideally need the humidity to be the same all the time to stay healthy. If not they might go into aestivation and seal themselves up in their shell. I think 75% humidity is OK but if you're using a hygrometer to measure humidity I'll warn you they're very inaccurate and I personally dn't bother with them. I just spray down my fulica tank whenever the sides look dry.
- 30 degrees is quite hot! Fulica needs ideally 22-24 degrees but if 30 degrees is the temperature of the room then there's not much you can do. They can still survive at temperatures that high its just not ideal. Maybe if it gets any hotter try cooling the room a little.
- By peat moss I assume you mean something like sphagnum moss? It should increase humidity as it holds a lot of moisture.

Sorry for the entire paragraph of info!! hope this helps somewhat aha

[LouLikesSnails]

Thanks a lot for the help. Unfortunately my snail, Tofu stopped eating suddenly and lost lots of weight. I tried giving him different stuff and stuff he liked but he ate nothing.. I'm incredibly sad by his passing. Thank you for the helpful advice tho. I want a favour from you, don't buy from snails4you and share the fact that snails4you is a terrible way to get snails. My first ever giant african land snail was a runt by there.. the second seemed okay so I don't understand why it suddenly stopped eating.. I'm incredibly sad. I can't believe it.