Piccies of slow growing dimidiatas

[LisaLQ]

Here's some piccies of my dimidiatas. To be honest I'm worried about them, they're not growing, they're spending most of their time asleep, and eating less than my others. Their shells are really flaky/cracked/scratched looking (not actually cracked, I must say).

Here's Gary:


He looks ok in this one but it's made him look better than he is:


And regarding the lack of growth - here's a piccie with Cooper as comparison. We got Cooper after Gary, and he was about a centimetre (or 1 and a half) smaller than Gary then, a month or so on, and he's now over a centimetre bigger. You can see new shell growth on Cooper - lots of it, whereas on Gary there's this thin bumpy bit of growth - check it out, and the difference in shell condition, in this pic:


Here's a pic with Sally put in, who's only 2cm, and from the same batch as Gary - also scratched looking shell, also asleep most of the time, lively when out but it's rare you see her:


And just for a general comparison - here's all of my snails in one pic:


From top centre clockwise: Cooper, Gary, Sally, Sam (9cm-ish), Monty.

I know it's probably the wrong board, but can anyone tell me whether this is normal for dimidiatas?

Oh and I forgot to say - for the last week or two Gary and Sally have had their own tank, so I could see whether it was other snails damaging them, or if they were struggling for food with the greedy fulicas (Sam and Cooper). Today I decided it had made no difference, so they've gone back in with the others.

[KathyM]

Justin (our dimidiata from the same lot) is exactly the same. We have to encourage him to eat too.

[Paul]

Have they been eating at all? That is the real factor for snails health. The only time I've seen overall shell changes, lack of shine and fading somehow it has been when they have not been eating. It looks in the picture like they are eating but have you seen for certain they are? If they are then I wouldn't be too concerned at this stage because perhaps they can be encouraged to improve.

Have they been spending a lot of time buried and what substrate do you use? If they have and you use peat, peat can scuff the shells a little with it being acidic.

Assuming it is related to diet and/or activity, I would suggest keeping a very close eye on them. Give them warm (not hot) baths regurlarly and offer them plenty of their favourite foods. Also, I think it is worth giving them an extra dose of calcium to help sort their shells out. I make a mix of cuttlefish powder and cereal crops like hemp, oats etc. I feed this every 2-3 days. When I had a real shell problem I used 50% cuttlefish powder and that helped within days. You'll have to use your own judgement on that. May also be a worth a drop of multi-vit in with it if you have any, to make sure they're not missing anything. Hemp is good for nails and hair and the periostracum (which is what will be flaking or scuffing) and the shell generally are very similar to nails. And hemp is really cheap. But porridge, pumpkin seed, sunflower seeds are also very good and preferred by some snails.

So my advice is to keep an eye on them, stimulate them often with baths and feeding time, keep them warm and humid so their metabolism improves and hopefully they are more active. Keep this up for a week and let's see how they are.

[Paul]

Just to add, two of my dimidiata went down the same route but a lot worse. I'm not saying your problems are related but I would definitely read the following worst case scenario:

www.petsnails.co.uk/index.php?action=problems&type=retracted#start

I hate doing this because I feel that people will think I am suggesting this is the problem, but some of the symptoms are similar and I think it is worth reading over to eliminate it or at least so you know what to keep an eye out for. You may also get a few tips from it.

[KathyM]

Thank you very much Paul - Lisa and I have read through that link and a lot of it matches

Lisa keeps hers on sphagnum moss and I use a mix of sphagnum moss and peat free organic compost.

I will start the "regime" immediately.

[Paul]

If it is this problem I think that if you can keep or get them eating you can solve it. I have had 2 recently that have started to pick up, others have to so it isn't quite as bad as the link sounds.

Have you had any new arrivals in the tank that could have spread it? I still can't decide what the problem actually is. It could still be genetic so any info you have or find out whilst dealing with it, I'd love to know.

[KathyM]

I've had new arrivals since, yes, but to be honest Justin has been like this from day one, so I really don't think it's something that came in with others - rather something that happened before (whether genetic or viral). I must admit when I heard others had similar problems with their dimis, I assumed it was a species specific problem. However I think it might be that theyre all from the same place.

[KathyM]

Scrap that - could've sworn someone else had said they had the same probs with their Virginia Cheeseman dimis, but I can't find it now. Must have dreamed it *lol*.

[LisaLQ]

Yup, they dont eat very much at all - I'm putting them on the food, they'll stay for a minute or two, then wander off. Last night Gary didn't even stay on it when I put him there. There is only one clue that someone's been eating, a small bit of cucumber skin missing from the bottom of a chunk I put in last night - so I reckon it was Sally coming up from underneath. They are both spending nearly all their time under the moss, and I dont know whether it's connected, but Gary had that trouble carrying his shell, and with that blister effect to his foot (he's now pulling his shell ok, but still has a bit of the blister look to his foot - although not as severely).

I've had one new arrival (Cooper - shortly after we got Gary and Sally), well technically two including Monty who arrived today, but none of my other snails show any signs, they're all active and feeding well, and with lovely shells (see pics).

When they were all in together originally, Gary spent a lot of time on the lid, and Sally was the one who hid all the time. When Gary started to do the same, I moved them into their own plastic tank so that I could keep an eye on them. They're just doing the same in there, I have to go hunting for them (usually can see a foot stuck to the bottom of the tank but not always *lol*).

I'm cleaning out the main tank tonight, and I'll be putting the heatmat back on - as although this room is the warmest in the house, I want to cover all bases - and their feet were pretty cold today when I took those pics.

I'll give your ideas a go - although I have no idea how to bath a snail, I'm assuming that bubble bath, a wind up whale, and a shower cap aren't necessary?

[LisaLQ]

I forgot to say - dont be fooled by the piccie of them all on the food in the big tank - I put them there for the piccie.

[sezzy5889]

Do you keep them all together?

Because i kept my babies including dimi's (3-4cm) in with my fulica's (8-10cm) and suddenly they weren't eating much didn't want to come out and their shells went just like yours and stop growing. I later found out it was because they were in with the big snails, they hated it so i moved them into their own tank with only snails the same or smaller than them and within a few hours they were eating like theres no tomorrow, and after a week they have started growing again and come out every night without having to bo woken up, and eat soo much, i am so happy because i started to worry about them.

[LisaLQ]

As I said, I took them out of the main tank, and they've been in their own tank for the last couple of weeks, with no improvement - if anything - they've got worse. So I've put them back in with the others today.