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Post by morningcoffee on Oct 24, 2014 20:17:47 GMT
Hi! Does anyone here have experience with capillary matting? I was thinking of lining my tank with this and providing a box for digging. Any thoughts? thanks! I've used it in a tank of rescue snails that had JUST been brought home and were in a fragile state, but you should always give healthy snails a suitable environment including proper substrate.
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Post by morningcoffee on Oct 24, 2014 11:48:17 GMT
A heatmat on the wall of the tank, correctly insulated, can absolutely produce a steady warm temperature. It might take some experimenting to get right but as long as you insulate it well and place it correctly it'll be absolutely fine. Don't make the mistake of assuming that keeping snails will follow the same principles as keeping insects and reptiles, they are really quite different, often live in different environments and certainly have different care requirements.
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Post by morningcoffee on Oct 23, 2014 17:46:07 GMT
Lovely photos!
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Post by morningcoffee on Oct 23, 2014 16:38:37 GMT
Good thinking! I will cut back on the spraying, I think I do spray just a little to much. thanks for all the help! Once a day should be enough for most tanks - if you find that your tank is drying out too easily, it may be an issue with too much ventilation in the tank preventing it from remaining humid. Best of luck with the coir!
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Post by morningcoffee on Oct 23, 2014 15:27:21 GMT
Is coir basically a coconut husk fiber? That is what is coming up when I search for it on Amazon.com. That's right Sometimes it's sold with the names coco-fiber, EcoEarth, or Humus Blocks. To be honest the fact that your substrate is too wet is probably partly to blame for the bug/fly problems you've been having - swampy conditions are an ideal breeding ground for bugs. Keeping the fresh substrate moist but not damp or wet would probably go some way towards helping the problem.
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Post by morningcoffee on Oct 23, 2014 12:26:18 GMT
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Post by morningcoffee on Oct 23, 2014 12:16:08 GMT
Hi and welcome to the forum! The heatmat should never be directly underneath the tank. With snails, heatmats should always be placed on the side of the tank to warm the air. With a heatmat directly underneath the tank, the substrate can heat up and cook the burrowing snails. Re-place it on the side of the tank to increase air temp and lower soil temp ASAP. They don't need a lamp or light at night. If your substrate is dripping when you squeeze it, it's too wet. You don't need to spray 3 times a day. If you have a tank with only a small amount of ventilation to keep it humid, you shouldn't need to spray more than once a day. The Exo Terra tanks with the mesh lids are terrible for keeping the tank moist and humid - I used to wrap the mesh lid on mine in a clear plastic recycling sack to lower ventilation (and reduce rusting of the lid!). However all that said, tiger snails tend towards the lazy side of things and generally aren't really that active. If they are eating regularly then they're probably about as active as you can expect. Edit : looks like muddy beat me to it while I was typing I second her advice though!
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Post by morningcoffee on Oct 23, 2014 9:08:16 GMT
I agree with muddy, it may just be the photo making it look this way, but the substrate looks far too wet and claggy.
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Post by morningcoffee on Oct 22, 2014 20:07:34 GMT
They like fish food,corn(+sweet corn),apples,boiled eggs,cucumbers...and that's maybe all they like to eat.They just refuse other food! Try sweet potato, dark green lettuce, tomatoes, mushrooms, butternut squash, courgette/zucchini, watermelon, carrot, mango, basil, flatleaf parsley, ground nuts (peanuts) and cashews, pumpkin seeds, soaked brown bread, soaked oats. You can also have a look at this thread: petsnails.proboards.com/thread/9416/feed-snailsI have a problem with the substrate,too.It dries really fast and when I wet it,it becomes too wet .I can't explain the problem,but it's maybe because the substrate is not very suitable. Make sure that your tank doesn't have too much ventilation that could be drying it out. Last question-are there any other calcium sources except the cuttlefish bone?I tried giving them an egg shell but they didn't like it very much. Limestone flour (calcium carbonate), ground oyster shell, reptile calcium supplements. You can use the forum search option here in future to look up info like this quickly. petsnails.proboards.com/search
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Post by morningcoffee on Oct 22, 2014 17:32:53 GMT
I have been dumping the coco fiber and doing a full wash each week. See my post in your previous thread about the dangers of keeping snail tanks too clean: petsnails.proboards.com/post/116458/threadUltimately you're not going to be able to keep tanks completely spotless, snails poop a lot, slime over everything etc, that's just what they do and in a tank environment it's going to be visible. Just remove the poop & wipe the tank walls every few days, and every week or every couple of weeks you can take out the fake plants & ornaments and rinse them off. You're going to have to accept some poop and mess in the tank when you keep snails I'm afraid
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Post by morningcoffee on Oct 22, 2014 10:56:35 GMT
You've got some great advice here. The only thing i can add is that you can "stir" the coir, just mess it up it helps keep it a bit more fresh (aand probably lets bacteria break down some of the poo) it also stops it from getting so compacted. I do this every 2 weeks or so - means I can search for eggs at the same time I just take out all the tank ornaments, rinse and wipe them all off, and then stir the substrate all around and turn it all over.
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Post by morningcoffee on Oct 21, 2014 21:12:35 GMT
I have fake plants in my tank. Ivy is good though because they won't really eat it and it can cope with low light levels.
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Post by morningcoffee on Oct 21, 2014 20:53:24 GMT
I just wipe down the sides of the tank with wet paper towels and pick up visible poop from the soil every few days.
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Post by morningcoffee on Oct 21, 2014 16:00:20 GMT
I just gave him his 2nd bath and he came out! Progress is being made! That's great news! Hopefully he'll be sliming around of his own volition soon
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Pests
Oct 20, 2014 13:15:42 GMT
Post by morningcoffee on Oct 20, 2014 13:15:42 GMT
Def is I'm going up the mountain in the jeep as soon as the land dries out enough for me to with a bucket n trowel to gather some plants. Zorst Don't forget that you should only water butterworts with rain water or distilled water, and make sure you pot them into appropriate nutrient-poor soil Most butterworts have very shallow roots, so they don't need deep pots, but you'll need to plant them in firmly with plenty of soil around the base to keep them anchored into the pot. Also, this means you should water them from the top so that the shallow roots can get the water. I use a plastic syringe (with no needle) to get the water into the centre of the plant without it all running off the leaves away from the soil
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Post by morningcoffee on Oct 20, 2014 13:10:39 GMT
Hi! I am new to this forum and snails. :)I have 2 snails that I have not idenified yet, mango and lemon. I live in the U.S. I have mango and lemon in a spare 10 gallon fish tank with a mesh lid and heavy things on top to prevent escape. They have one and a half inches of coco fiber substrate and half of the tank has moss covering it. They have 2 fake plants on the opposite sides of the tank and a SHALLOW bath dish.I spray them 2 times a day, morning and night. I also have some questions concerning mango. Ive had him for 3 days and he has not come out though he has pooped. ???I suspect that he was partially sprayed with pesticide because the place I got him had dead snail shells everywhere when the night before there was snails everywhere. >:DIs there any thing i can do to help him? Hi and welcome to the forum! Sounds like you have a great setup there, but you might want to cover the mesh lid to lower the ventilation and keep the tank more humid, this will be better for the snails and will probably mean you'll only need to spray the tank once a day You can either wrap the lid in a clear plastic bag or similar, or just put a towel or something else on top to cover it. As for mango, you could try giving him a warm bath. Just fill a shallow dish with lukewarm water and sit him in it. You can leave him sitting in it for a while and you can trickle water over his shell as well. Hopefully this will encourage him to come out of his shell, and if he does have any pesticide or anything nasty on his body it will help to rinse it off as much as possible. If he wakes up and comes out of his shell, pick him up gently and place him on some fresh food to encourage him to eat.
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Pests
Oct 20, 2014 11:45:47 GMT
Post by morningcoffee on Oct 20, 2014 11:45:47 GMT
My butterwort sits next to a couple of houseplants that are prone to having fungus gnats in the soil, here's what it looks like atm: As you can see, they're pretty effective gnat-catchers!
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Post by morningcoffee on Oct 19, 2014 21:31:08 GMT
This... I doubt it it can be real, but just want to know to be "extra sure". Only with coloured contact lenses (or Photoshop).
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Post by morningcoffee on Oct 19, 2014 19:56:18 GMT
This is a very weird, stupid, unusual, random question and I tried googling it, but couldn't find any answers so I must ask you: can neon green eyes occur naturally in humans? It depends what you mean by "neon green". There's many different shades of green eyes that are possible, although green eyes are quite rare. If you mean very light green eyes, then yes. If you mean vivid bright coloured-contact-lense green, then no.
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Post by morningcoffee on Oct 19, 2014 19:35:34 GMT
Looks fantastic! Great job on the pumpkin. I bet they'll have a great time exploring and munching on it
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Post by morningcoffee on Oct 19, 2014 19:16:31 GMT
Hey everyone I'm wondering if anyone has any of the following snails for sale: Limicolaria numidica Amphidromus perversus butoti Caracolus sagemon Many thanks Did you say you were new to keeping snails? You might be better off starting with some more beginner-friendly snails if so, like Achatina fulica, Archachatina marginata or Pleurodonte isabella.
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Post by morningcoffee on Oct 19, 2014 10:02:56 GMT
I'd like to confirm that the insulation works a treat. My previous post on low tank temperature led me to purchase some 1" thick expanded polystyrene. I stuck it to the rear and sides of the tank and have raised my temps from a worrying 21-22C to a toasty 24-25C. A cheap easy fix. Glad to hear that
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Post by morningcoffee on Oct 19, 2014 7:48:19 GMT
I just found this huge guy on my wall outside! Am I right in thinking he's Helix aspersa? Yes, he's an aspersa. Lovely shell he has. Hope he'll do well
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Post by morningcoffee on Oct 18, 2014 21:10:42 GMT
Hi Ketty, welcome to the forum, benvenuta!
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Post by morningcoffee on Oct 18, 2014 21:02:04 GMT
Fantastic post, everyone keeping non-native snails should read this!
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