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Post by morningcoffee on Oct 11, 2022 8:03:56 GMT
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Post by morningcoffee on Oct 11, 2022 8:00:51 GMT
These temperatures shouldn't be a problem and the snail should be OK whenever you release it. During or after rain is fine.
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Post by morningcoffee on Mar 16, 2022 9:47:40 GMT
Otala lactea are native to northern Africa and Spain, where they don't have super humid / moist conditions. Try keeping the humidity and moisture lower to mimic their natural habitat better. They are also foliage feeders, so try giving leafy foods rather than root vegetables. Lettuce is fine for them to have, particularly darker lettuce varieties (Romaine, curly leaf, batavia, butter lettuce, little gem etc). Iceberg lettuce and cucumber are absolutely fine for snails in moderation.
What substrate are you using and how often do you clean the tank? Snails need a soil type substrate containing natural bacteria and soil flora to ingest as part of their digestion cycle (which is also why they don't need to eat every day). If you're cleaning the tank or giving clean substrate too often, this can lead to issues with eating.
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Post by morningcoffee on Jul 26, 2021 13:21:56 GMT
Hi all,
I am having surgery tomorrow and will probably be away from the forum for a few days. If there's anything urgent that needs my attention in that time, please either use the report function or PM me, as both will go directly to my email, and I will deal with it ASAP. Thanks!
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Post by morningcoffee on Jul 9, 2021 18:03:12 GMT
To my knowledge the breathing hole and anus are separate things, as you can see on this diagram. I really apologise if I'm wrong though! Yes, they are separate things. The anus opens inside the mantle cavity for the snail to defecate. Poop then leaves the mantle cavity via the breathing hole.
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Post by morningcoffee on Jul 9, 2021 16:59:21 GMT
And I just realised- in addition to it being the wrong colour and texture, that can't be poo as its coming out the breathing hole. I'm aware its possible in theory for poo to get in there but a snail would close up the breathing hole if it felt something going in, there's no way it would allow an object that big to go in there without reacting somehow to prevent it, plus a poo that strange looking and that long to also be coming out of the breathing hole seems like too much of a coincidence. In snails, the anus opening is inside the mantle cavity and poop is then expelled through the breathing hole, so it would in fact be perfectly normal for poop to come out there. I am not convinced that what's in the picture is poop, though. Also, mantle collapse is curable, but requires a lot food. It’s hard to get your snail to eat when they are in that condition, so it is difficult. I have never previously heard that mantle collapse is curable with food. Is there any source on this?
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Post by morningcoffee on Jul 6, 2021 11:01:51 GMT
I've noticed a small white lump on the right side of my African Land Snail's neck. It fluctuates in size and sometimes disappears entirely. I've done some research and apparently it's called a "love dart". Can anyone confirm this for me? I'm worried incase it's a sore of some kind. I'm not sure of my snail's age as I got him from a school who tried to release him. Any advice about this is helpful! That sounds like it's the snail's genital pore, where the reproductive organs are. A "love dart" is a sharp hard "dart" that some species of snails produce when mating. Some info about slug and snail biology here: idtools.org/id/mollusc/biology.php#:~:text=In%20snails%2C%20the%20genital%20poreThere's a good explanation of "love darts" here: www.molluscs.at/gastropoda/index.html?/gastropoda/morphology/love_dart.html
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Post by morningcoffee on Jul 2, 2021 18:13:49 GMT
I’m about to get a new African land snail (archachatina marginata ovum) to live with my current snail (Achatina reticulata), the new snail is f1 so I’m not sure if I have to quarantine him before introducing it to my current gals. Can someone please tell me if I do have to quarantine it and if so, for how long? Also how large is the chance of them having fertilised eggs? Thank you! These are two different genera (Achatina and Archachatina) and will not mate with each other.
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Post by morningcoffee on Jun 25, 2021 16:51:22 GMT
I’m planning on finding garden slugs around my area and keeping them in a 10 gallon tank 😗. Considering i want multiple slugs in one container and i don’t want to deal with baby slugs yet, what would y’all recommend i do? I saw a couple of things about sifting through the substrate and cleaning out the tank, but i’m not too sure how often i should look for eggs and how to deal with them if i do find them. Is it smarter to keep them separated?? When i search for information on slugs all that comes up is how to kill them 😭. Search through the substrate once a week, remove any eggs, put them in a container and put them in the freezer for 24 hours. You can then dispose of the eggs.
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Post by morningcoffee on Jun 25, 2021 12:01:28 GMT
Hello, I'm rather new to snail keeping but my snail seemed to be doing well so far. However, the last couple of days, I have noticed these little black insects crawling on my snail's food, body and shell! Is there anything I can do to get rid of them? I can't use pesticide and I've heard that clearing out substrate completely is bad for the snail. Please do help if you can. I have attached pictures here and ci rcled where the bugs are for clarity. imgur.com/a/dMMXXN3These are some type of soil mite that's almost impossible to avoid getting in your tank at some point. They are harmless to the snails but might get annoying in significant enough numbers. You can reduce their numbers by changing the soil and mixing in some of the old soil to maintain the soil flora, however it's very difficult to get rid of them totally. You could try using Hypoaspis miles predatory mites if you really wanted to be rid of them, however this is expensive and the soil mites are likely to come back in the future anyway.
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Post by morningcoffee on Jun 24, 2021 13:55:14 GMT
Can anyone help me? We are new snail owners, my seven year old found them on the side of a building. She was so eager to find some snails. I've read thru this list and other sites on what to feed them, but i can't tell if they're eating! So far we have tried: Kale, tomatoes, blueberries cut in half, lettuce, spinach, a paste made from hemp seeds, banana, strawberries, cucumbers, apples... Everything we've put in appears to be exactly where it was placed and untouched. We're changing out the food about every other day. But I am at a loss. Could it be that they're mouths are so small that they're eating and its not noticeable? Two of them are what I call medium but still smaller than a dime. And two of them are tiiiiiny. If anyone can give me some insight or tips, it will bw much appreciated. Normally you would see some signs of food having been eaten even with small snails. Are they definitely waking up / becoming active at night? If not, try putting them in a shallow dish of lukewarm water for a couple of minutes in the evening, then placing them directly onto food. Leafy green lettuce or sweet potato is a good starting point.
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Post by morningcoffee on Jun 24, 2021 9:25:37 GMT
SraigeArturas - Please do not continue to make these kind of posts about your experimental methods. If you wish to keep your snails in these conditions then that is your decision, however please do not post about it on this forum. Other forum members are finding these posts distressing. If you wish to share your ideas elsewhere then perhaps a personal blog would be a better fit for you - you can set one up for free using sites like Wordpress or Blogger.
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Post by morningcoffee on Jun 4, 2021 21:45:13 GMT
OK I'm freaking out a little. Very unexpected surprise. Now -- how do I make it better for Her? Do I have to separate Her from the other 2 members of the Fam? Shall I give extra moist spray? More food? How long is it until done? PLEASE HELP FIRST TIME SNAILMOTHA You don't need to do anything, just leave it be and let it lay the eggs. Don't disturb the snail or it may interrupt the laying process.
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Post by morningcoffee on May 16, 2021 14:29:06 GMT
My smaller snails have the same food and soil buy they have not had a reaction, and those ones dont get pet at all by my friends, and my friends usually only pet them on the back of their neck, so i suspect that maybe one of my friends had something on their hands before touching them. They are fine now thankfully and i will make sure to be more strict with mine and my friends hand hygiene Their other care all sounds absolutely fine, so if there are people touching them on that area occasionally then I think a reaction to something on the hands/fingers is most likely. Even something as basic as soap not fully washed off could irritate their skin, so as long as people wash and rinse their hands thoroughly before touching them, hopefully the snails won't have the problem again
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Post by morningcoffee on May 13, 2021 12:20:17 GMT
Hi,
I strongly recommend sticking to snails & slugs that are native to your local area - not only is it illegal to transport live snails over state lines, but Orthalicus reses is an endangered and protected species that should absolutely NOT be kept by hobbyists and very, very definitely should never be collected from the wild.
Tropical tree snail requirements in captivity can also sound easy to achieve on paper, but in practice they can be extremely difficult to successfully keep in captivity and even very experienced snail keepers have struggled with keeping them alive.
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Post by morningcoffee on May 13, 2021 11:54:22 GMT
Might have been an unsuccessful mating so there's no eggs to be laid.
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Post by morningcoffee on May 12, 2021 8:41:49 GMT
Strange, I don't know what this could be really. I would say it could be something like a reaction to an irritant or chemicals, but I don't know why it would be appearing in just one spot on the back. If it was chemicals on food for example, you'd expect it to be around the mouth and foot, or on/around the foot if it was something in the soil. It's an odd place to have a reaction to something. Do you handle the snails a lot? Could it be something like soap, lotion or oil on your hands not fully washed off before touching them?
Perhaps try giving them a warm bath in clean water (preferably bottled or filtered) at least once a day in case it's some kind of skin reaction and see if that helps at all.
Do you wash their food before giving it to them? What substrate are you using?
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Post by morningcoffee on May 8, 2021 19:31:56 GMT
I've never dealt with an injury before and don't know what to do. He's currently quarantined in a humid, small glass container with air holes, 1/4th inch of substrate, a chunk of cuttlebone and a bit of green bean to eat. He hasn't eaten either, even when I moved him on top of the food. He's currently staying still but I can see the "heartbeat" still from behind the shell to know he's still alive (hopefully you know what I mean?) Is there anything else I should be doing?? Thank you in advance. Here are pictures (sorry for the grimy hands. I was cleaning my tank): postimg.cc/gallery/ZKD9gkhNote the dark line across the inside front of the shell is the shell lip, you can see it shifted upwards due to injury The eyes aren't fully extended in the pictures, but been have since, and seem okay now That's quite a nasty break. What you're already doing sounds good - keep the environment humid/moist but not damp or soggy. Don't keep picking him up or moving him to try and get him to eat, the best thing to do is let him rest to try and start healing the shell break if possible, however there is a lot of shell missing so I'm afraid it's possible he may not make it. I would provide a nutritious food like sweet potato for him to eat for the moment if you have anything like that available.
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Post by morningcoffee on May 8, 2021 10:55:14 GMT
I just went to check up on my snails after I had to leave them for a few days and realized there were fruit flies around some veggies I had accidentally left in the tank. Went through to find one of my littlest snails buried deep in the substrate, dead, and full of worms! imgur.com/gallery/qsMWtkj What are they and what should I do? Update: did some research but I’m still not sure what those worms were. I was using a coconut coir substrate covered in store bought moss. I removed everything, washed the tank with soap and rinsed throughly, and placed the remaining snails in the clean empty tank with a fresh piece of moss to maintain some moisture, fresh cuttlebone, and some baby carrots to snack on. imgur.com/gallery/vFdhWGx any other suggestions? If they were attracted to rotting vegetables they're almost certainly fungus gnats and not fruit flies. I can't really see the worms in your pic unfortunately but they could be fungus gnat larvae, it's possible the snail died from something unrelated and the larvae are just eating the body as it decomposes rather than being the cause of death.
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Post by morningcoffee on May 8, 2021 7:44:00 GMT
A few days ago, two of my snails mated. After they finished with mating, i separated them from the colony, and i put them both in another terrarium. But is there a way to know which of the two snails hold the eggs? Logically, i assume that the snail with inflated body (or a bump on its body) is the snail that holds the eggs. But i still don't see any bump on their bodies. Do i have to wait for a bump to appear? How can i recognize in which snail the eggs are? Eggs are formed and held within the snail's mantle cavity inside the shell before laying, so you won't see a "bump" on the snail's body like a pregnancy in mammals. Sometimes using a bright light you can see eggs inside the shell once they've developed if you look inside the breathing hole, however this is easier on giant snails and may not be possible for small garden snails.
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Post by morningcoffee on May 7, 2021 12:44:16 GMT
In this video, you can see snail eating eggshell that is not destroyed into small pieces nor the shell is turned into powder: www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYNqn0oDY7kThe snail that is shown, in the video, is African giant snail. My snails are garden snails. So, can i use eggshell as source of calcium for garden snails, or garden snails have weaker teeth than African giant snails? If i turn the eggshell into small pieces, the pieces will be sharp. Can this hurt the snails once they swallow the pieces? If snails try to eat eggshell that is not turned into small pieces or powder, can this sawing the teeth of snails? If snails see the eggshell for fist time, how will they know that the eggshell contains calcium? Thanks. Snails don't have teeth that chew or swallow whole chunks or pieces like mammals do - they have a radula that they use to scrape over the surface of their food. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radula There's no difference with the mouth/radula/digestive system of African snails compared to garden snails except that they're bigger. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digestive_system_of_gastropodsEggshell can be used for calcium if you don't have access to limestone flour or clean cuttlebone. Snails generally instinctively recognise calcium and are able to regulate their own intake of it, as needed. Make sure not to regularly add calcium to their food or sprinkle it on top of their food, as this can cause over-intake of calcium that can lead to serious internal problems and even death over time. The calcium source should be provided separately to the food for the snails to eat when they choose.
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Post by morningcoffee on May 6, 2021 8:52:57 GMT
hey y'all. im pretty new here but i know like, next to nothing about identifying snails. i was wondering if i could get a hand IDing these little guys i recently caught. They could possibly be Otala lactea (which are an introduced/invasive species in Texas) but I'm not confident of that ID. We might need some better photos showing different angles, and some shell measurements etc. idtools.org/id/mollusc/factsheet.php?name=Otala%20spp. wolf - any thoughts?
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Post by morningcoffee on May 5, 2021 6:41:28 GMT
Hello! New snail owner here, got two young achatinas from local pet store. I guess they havent been treated well or something Would these cracks be healed over time or should I start to think about doing something to them? They are active and eat food and cuttlebone well.
First two pictures are from first snail, and third from the other. Thank you very much!
Hi there, These look like quite superficial cracks that haven't broken right through the shell, so shouldn't be anything to worry about in terms of their health. The ones on the second snail look a bit worse but seem to have already been successfully patched over from the inside by the snail. They may possibly have "dents" or marks there for the rest of their lives. It looks like they could have been kept in a tank with hard objects like rocks or heavy decorations that they could have fallen onto, or perhaps were transported roughly at one point. Hopefully with some good care and a varied diet they will be ok from now
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Post by morningcoffee on May 4, 2021 8:55:57 GMT
I'd honestly recommend just doing a full soil change again, and taking steps to prevent the gnats getting back in. Baking the substrate is going to be time-consuming and messy and will kill the "good" bacteria in the soil anyway, or if it's not done thoroughly could leave some larvae in the substrate to start the whole cycle again. If the soil was changed in Feb, it'll be fine to change it again now, just let the snail poop and old food sit in the tank for a few days at a time afterwards to help get soil flora going again. Until you take steps to stop the gnats getting in in the first place, they're going to just keep getting back into the tank and you'll keep having the same problem - I've also been having the same issue recently as I have a lot of houseplants, and it's extremely annoying!
A cheap / quick solution is stretching a pair of tights/pantyhose over the tank lid to prevent them getting in - doesn't look very pretty but as long as there's no holes, it works.
If you're any good with plants then carnivorous plants near the tank can help catch any pesky gnats before they get in - sundews (Drosera) and butterworts (Pinguicula) are very good for fungus gnats. Apple cider vinegar supposedly works for fruit flies but it won't work for fungus gnats as they are not attracted to sweet/fruity things in the same way.
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Post by morningcoffee on May 4, 2021 8:49:24 GMT
The question is about land snails. I have noticed that snails go in the water and on the food. This mean that when they "walk" in the water and on the food, they leave slime. Should this slime be cleaned from the food, and then new water, that doesn't contain slime, to replace the old water that contain slime? Is it okay to leave the slime in the water and on the food? When other snails drink from the water and eat the food, can the slime, of the previous snails, harm the snails that eat and drink? Also, should the snails' feces be cleaned from the soil, or i should leave them to rot, so bacteria can thrive in the soil? As far as i know, snails need to eat soil with bacteria to help their digestion cycle... Thanks. Slime isn't harmful in any way. It's fine to leave snail poop in the tank for a while without removing it, as this can help healthy bacteria in the soil. Doing a thorough tank clean should be done as infrequently as possible unless there's a problem like mites, but it's generally recommended to do a basic tank clean involving wiping down the tank walls/ceiling to remove slime/poop, and removing obvious bits of poop or old food on the soil, about once a week. If food is going rotten or mouldy before then, you should remove it.
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