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Post by Paul on May 30, 2008 16:41:09 GMT
After hatching they'll come into contact with the parents thus being exposed to anything the parents may be carrying. Although the exposure time is short is there much point in going to all that trouble if you can't guarantee it will be successful? I dunked mine in some water to wash them and then put them in the tank.
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Plants
May 30, 2008 15:15:15 GMT
Post by Paul on May 30, 2008 15:15:15 GMT
Was the red thing "Fittonia"?
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Post by Paul on May 30, 2008 15:13:43 GMT
Would it make a differance if i bred the woodlice and then put the captive bred ones in the tank? That way i no that they are safe? Woodlice carry their eggs around with them, on the underside of their body. So you'd not be able to take "clean" eggs and hatch them away from their parents who potentially may be carrying something.
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Post by Paul on May 30, 2008 15:12:41 GMT
so are yours with the african snails or with the garden snails? I've kept them with European and African snails.
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Plants
May 30, 2008 4:30:52 GMT
Post by Paul on May 30, 2008 4:30:52 GMT
I recently went to town looking for good tank plants.
A lot of people are cautious because many of them are toxic etc. but I decided that snails manage to figure out what is edible and not in my garden, and a lot of the plants there are from all around the world. As snails have incredible chemo-receptors, I'd leave it up to them.
So I went out an bought a raft of plants. I've now got 2 x 4 foot fluorescent tubes over the top to ensure they grow well. I've got a plug timer on a fixed cycle for now, but I intend to wire that to a light sensor so I can mimick the light-cycle outside.
I'm happy to report no snail deaths even though a number of plants have been nibbled and they seem a lot happier. It really lifts the environment of the tank. Some of the plants were eaten too fast so I've taken them out to cultivate more of them. I'll add them as food plants. Some that are toxic to mammals were even eaten with no apparent adverse effects which makes sense because snails are very different.
Anyway, I thought I'd post a thread asking you to list plants you've used successfully, that have grown well in tank conditions. A sentence or two on whether they were eaten or not etc. would be useful, or where you got them from etc., how to propagate them etc. Any pertinant information at all.
I'm hoping that can make it's way on to the site.
I'm gonna get some pictures of the tank and I'll do a write up of the plants and my findings over the next week or so.
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Post by Paul on May 30, 2008 4:10:01 GMT
I have loads of woodlice in the tank. They are industrious but they don't make that much of a dent in what needs cleaning. Incidentally I also keep worms because compete with nematodes really well and they keep the soil fresh. But back to woodlice...
All life can carry parasites and I don't doubt woodlice could also. But I wouldn't worry too much, the physiology between woodlice and snails are very different so I doubt they share many parasites. I've never had any snail react badly to them.
If you want to err on the side of caution, keep them in a new tank or tub, and keep one snail with them. If that shows adverse affects you'll know they aren't safe. I've been keeping them for a year or so without any problems and I just bunged them in the tank.
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Post by Paul on May 30, 2008 4:03:22 GMT
That's the beauty of them. When they are supplied they are very young, they will grow and consume more food as they grow. They have a rough breeding cycle of 2-3 weeks so they'll grow in population sizes proportional to their prey. Also, they can survive without live prey for a while so they should last long enough to sort your problem out. Just be patient.
I guess it may be too late now, but I advise getting rid of your substrate before you start and then only adding less then an inch of new substrate during this treatment process. The Hypoaspis can inhabit this amount. Any more and you are risking some becoming unreachable. I have no idea of how deep Riccardoella can go but there's no point taking chances. If most of your problem mites are in the soil, getting rid of that and washing everything before you start would get rid of 99% of them.
That's the aim really. Put 1000s of Hypoaspis in with less than a 100 mites and the chances of some surviving are very slim.
Still, I think your chances are quite good.
If anyone is thinking of doing this and hasn't yet, I've written my recommended steps better in the article. Just ideas to raise your chances of success. I'm interested in everyone's results, hopefully they will reinforce my conclusions so far.
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Post by Paul on May 23, 2008 2:39:47 GMT
I've just updated the Hypoaspis page. www.petsnails.co.uk/documents/hypoaspis_miles.htmlI bought some new snails and a couple had mites. Buying the Hypoaspis gave me an new opportunity to test them. I had used the effectively before writing the page but I hadn't witnessed the the Riccardoella mites being grabbed an eaten. So... I trapped some Riccardoella in a small container, added loads of Hypoaspis and observed using a jewellers magnifying glass. I'm happy to report I witnessed the Riccardoella being grabbed and eaten. Washing and cleanliness will never rid the snails of them, at best it can reduce the numbers. The problem is that they congregate inside the pneumostome. They can reproduce very quickly in tanks; I and others have witnessed them all over the substrate so obviously a good cleanliness routine can help with that, but it's a purely short-term solution to stop things getting out of hand. Also, check out the Riccardoella page, so you can see what you're up against: www.petsnails.co.uk/problems/mites.html#start
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Post by Paul on Aug 4, 2006 14:28:31 GMT
You really do have an amazing array of creatures Kevin. They always look so incredibly well-kept, healthy and happy. It's a credit to you and something for us all to aspire to. Well done mate!
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Post by Paul on Jun 6, 2006 13:32:48 GMT
Ask Daz from snails2die4, he uses dehydrators. You can produce aquatic and land snail food, but obviously water needs to be re-added for land snails on feeding.
The idea of dehydrating is that it does so at less than 46°C. Above that temperature the proteins and vitamins are denatured and killed so it really does make more nutritious foods. It's exactly like sun-dried tomatos and the like.
I used a warm cupboard to dry out dandelion leaves and then I grated them using a metal sieve. It's a great way of keeping greens through winter.
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Post by Paul on Apr 7, 2006 14:17:25 GMT
done...
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Post by Paul on Jan 27, 2008 19:57:20 GMT
Yes, I've lifted the restrictions...
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Post by Paul on Aug 28, 2007 11:33:42 GMT
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Post by Paul on Aug 17, 2007 20:08:06 GMT
bump
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Post by Paul on Aug 16, 2007 16:43:38 GMT
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Post by Paul on Aug 16, 2007 12:59:07 GMT
Could there be two seperate mailing lists for Sales and Wanted? Yeah, I don't see why not.
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Post by Paul on Aug 16, 2007 1:01:11 GMT
I'm thinking of having an option for website members to receive classifieds by email as soon as they are vetted, so you don't have to check the website or forum.
Would that be something any of you are interested in?
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Post by Paul on Aug 16, 2007 0:58:22 GMT
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Post by Paul on Aug 14, 2007 19:36:36 GMT
I've not had chance to do it yet, but I'm hoping it'll be on by the end of the week.
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Post by Paul on Aug 2, 2007 2:58:50 GMT
I've taken down the retailers and reviews section. I don't want to shutdown classifieds completely but things are getting way out of hand and is seriously impacting on the running of this forum.
I'd seriously like a free way of you all selling your snails, a way that can help cut down being mithered and a way for you to vet sellers. The problem is, no matter how loudly we say we can't be involved, we are often treated as if we have responsibility for ads we are willing to place. The local newspaper you saw an ad in, isn't to blame if the goods turn out to be faulty. It is the same here. We have neither the time nor resources to get involved. Our intentions when attempting to help provide a platform for dialogue are more often than not, mistaken as favouritism or being unfair. We can't win.
We are spending so much time courting controversy, it is becoming a spanner in the works, one that seems to keep growing.
We all do this for fun, for free and I can't allow my moderators to take flack for something they aren't involved in, when they're trying to help. It simply isn't fair. I have been asking serious questions of myself, about why I bother to run this forum. I spend more and more of my time playing at being Solomon.
The problem is that we are sympathetic to people when something goes wrong or they have a dispute, we understand the need to vent and show their frustration. But this is becoming totally unmanageable. If we have a review section we have to allow bad reviews. But these bad reviews get out of hand quickly.
Ideally, I would like to continue as normal but that is clearly impossible. I would like to integrate with a selling/classifieds site that I do not run. Ideally, we send people to them and we publish their ads here or on the website, as I do for ebay. As a service with no comeback or discussion. The other site can deal with reviews or ratings or whatever. If anyone has any ideas I'd like to hear them on this.
Although this won't tell you if a seller you find is a bad seller, it will at least give snail owners a place to look for sellers with a good reputation, even if less exotic or rare snails are to be found there. Any transaction outside of this could then be seen as very risky. We could also encourage sellers to use this system for some accountability.
I see that as the only really constructive way forward and I'm willing to do my part, if an opportunity presents itself. I don't think there will be many free versions of this, because who in their right mind would take that task on without some financial reward?
If you do want to run that kind of thing, a forum or website for selling snails please get in touch so I can explain how we can help, in an indirect way of course.
I have decided to still keep the classifieds on the website and forum, they are too useful to take away. There needs to be some way to inform people when someone is ready to sell something. We had loads of problems with mithering. It is some people's view that if I publish classifieds, I have a responsibility to provide a review section. This isn't going to be the case. The classifieds on both the website and forum are simply a notice board.
This forum is for information, discussion and chat. Any mention of transactions that isn't purely incidental will be removed as soon as it is spotted. I ask that everyone refrain from doing this.
There will be a short delay while I alter the website classifieds to allow me to vet ads before publication due to the abuse of that.
I'm truly sorry it has come to this, the compromise makes me angry. We keep having to compromise because of stuff going on and the reputation of the forum keeps getting dragged through the mud. It boils down to the choice between having a forum where everyone can commune peaceably that doesn't include discussion of trading or not having a forum. Well this one anyway.
To survive, we are forced to take the attitude of if you don't like the forum or it's format or content and break the rules rather than using constructive criticism, or you feel the need to let the world know about something we no longer choose to countenance, well, this forum is not the place for you; your own website/forum/blog is only a click away. We can't treat every indiscretion as a huge deal, so we'll simply delete the posts with no explanation and that will be the end of it, except in extreme cases.
I hope this action will take the forum back in the right direction, away from bickering and problems by not giving time to anybody who wants to make trouble or take things too far, and make it a cool place to visit again.
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Post by Paul on Jun 30, 2007 12:31:53 GMT
Well, guest posting has finally been disabled. I'm so sick of all these pathetic games. If the abuse continues I'll be forced to turn on moderator approval of new accounts.
snailover31, you've abused my trust and I suspect you knew Charlotte all along. Stay away from this forum!
Charlotte, I'm compiling a record of all your activity which I will send to your ISP so they can shut your account down. I work with ISPs and they don't tolerate behavior like this, it simply isn't worth the risk to them. EDIT - it looks like snaillover31 is pretending to be charlotte to annoy us, so in fact this report will go to your ISP.
Why don't you both start a forum of your own, where you can trash-talk to each other all day, and stay away from people who are actually interested in something. I don't know what you get out of it. I can only conclude your lives are so empty that annoying a few people on an online forum is the highlight of your day and probably the most you'll ever accomplish.
It's pathetic...
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Post by Paul on Jun 27, 2007 18:18:10 GMT
I just wanted to say that I think we need to give snaillover31 a chance.
I know many people on here were thinking she could be the infamous charlotte using yet another alias but that isn't the case. Her IP tracks to California and in her correspondence to me privately she does seem genuine so I think we should give her the benefit of the doubt.
Danielle, you probably think people on here aren't being very welcoming, but as I explained to you, we're all very wary because of a troublesome poster we had, whose early comments were styled similar to yours but then became abusive. It's just an unfortunate coincidence.
Under normal circumstances, the users of the forum are a very friendly bunch who can't do enough to help and offer advice as I'm sure you'll soon see.
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Post by Paul on Jun 23, 2007 14:02:31 GMT
I've banned her IP but if she does come back on, please ignore her posts. They will deleted as soon as a moderator sees them.
Let's completely ignore her and hopefully she'll get bored, wake up and assess the life she's chosen and we can meet her at the evolution bell curve.
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Post by Paul on Jun 9, 2007 23:22:36 GMT
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Post by Paul on May 4, 2007 2:37:07 GMT
The classifieds have been changed to support pictures.
Simply include the URL of the picture in the Advert Text and it will be recognised. There is no need for BB Code.
It will recognise the following picture types: jpg, gif, png and bmp.
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