|
Post by kedreeva on Jan 3, 2024 0:28:13 GMT
I just got these guys a couple of weeks ago, after wanting them for a long time. I originally temp housed them for a few days in an empty terrarium set up for a different species that didn't work out (I was still waiting on delayed shipments for part of the lucorum substrate, the snails weren't supposed to arrive first), and they *hated* that enclosure, spent that weekend just closed into their shells, didn't want to eat, nothing.
I put them into the enclosure actually made up for them, worried that they would hate it, too, and that I'd just gotten in over my head, but they've been all over the place! Eating a bunch, sleeping in the hides, following each other around. My understanding was that their breeding season was oct-early december, or at least their laying season (it's been unclear in the reading I've done), so I have to say I was VERY surprised to see this just two weeks after settling them in their permanent home!
When I walked in the room I was just going to grab a photo of them being in each other's faces, and then I realized what was happening when the genital organ started to appear, so I started a video. The last photo is a couple of hours later when I checked in on them.
I have no idea if they'll actually produce eggs or anything, but it was still cool to see the behavior in person!
|
|
|
Post by kedreeva on Apr 7, 2024 3:45:53 GMT
They succeeded at making babies!
|
|
|
Post by thedragoninvasion on Apr 7, 2024 3:55:53 GMT
Hi! I'm not really an expert on this species of snails, so i'm really curious about them! did you find the eggs before they hatched? have aster and iris mated again after the first time? how big are the babies? anyways, congrats on the baby snails : D
|
|
|
Post by kedreeva on May 5, 2024 1:27:45 GMT
Hi! I'm not really an expert on this species of snails, so i'm really curious about them! did you find the eggs before they hatched? have aster and iris mated again after the first time? how big are the babies? anyways, congrats on the baby snails : D Hi! Thank you, I'm very excited! I'm not an expert either, these are actually my first two. There's really not a lot of good info about them that I could find, so I'm trying to find my way here.
To answer your question, the babies are a few millimeters in diameter at hatch, maybe like 4? I did not go looking for the eggs before they hatched. Since I had never bred them previously, I wanted to let the parents pick the nest location, and see how well the clutch went without interference. I found three babies, all quite large (I mean, not compared to adults, but larger than I expected them to be even though it turns out the eggs are also quite large), but only one of them had emerged to the surface. I suspected perhaps there were others still under the substrate, so I gently dug through the rest of the substrate, and found two more, and a second clutch of roughly 15-20 eggs.
I gently removed that clutch, and transplanted it into a tall deli cup, with some of the soil from their nest, but I put tree fernsoil and sphagnum moss mixed around them. I topped that with a lid that had only a few holes in it, and then took that container to my basement where it was nice and cool. I had read someone else's post here about how their clutches seemed to do better in the colder part of the substrate down deeper, so I wanted to try to mimic that better (the adults are in a fairly warm room in my house). They just started hatching in the last week, and there are 11 out so far, and 5 more eggs that still look good, along with one deflated kind of gooey dud. I didn't find any evidence of shells, or other duds, it's possible they were eaten.
The original three babies I separated to individual deli cups and the two I kept are doing great. I traded one for some milk snails, and held onto the other two (I didn't know if the other clutch would hatch at all, and I got my pair as adults... I was told they were three, but honestly who knows) just in case. For the new clutch, tonight I separated out one container with the three biggest, one container with the four middlest, and one container with the four smallest. Although they are smaller, I didn't see any deformed shells or other problems, and given there are still more eggs that I'm not sure will hatch or not, it's possible they were just simply hatched later. I intend to separate them into individual containers as well, but I need to mix up some more soil. I don't want to give them too much space while they're so small. They're currently in with some eggplant and some eggshell from one of my peafowl, and I'll continue trying to vary their diet like I do the adults. I will be holding onto the biggest pair from each clutch to see how they grow out.
As for Aster and Iris, I haven't caught them mating again yet. I don't suspect they will, until fall/winter again, since that's supposed to be their breeding cycle. 20 eggs also seems like a small clutch, since in my research I found a paper documenting wild breeding that said their clutches were something closer to 60-80 eggs. I have no idea what a smaller clutch is evidence of- age of the snails, different habitat parameters, diet, could even be that it was a late second clutch or early first clutch or something, since their breeding season does not really line up with what happened, at least not from what I read. I read they were supposed to be mating october-early december, and yet they were doing the do at my house in january. Maybe being shipped had an effect.
So, I'm pretty happy with what appears to be 14 healthy babies this year! For a first try at this with almost no guidance, I don't think that's too shabby. I'll keep reporting as I go, and see if I get any better at it
|
|
|
Post by kedreeva on May 5, 2024 12:44:19 GMT
This is one of the larger sized babies from the new clutch
|
|