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Post by pinkunicorn on Apr 16, 2012 14:18:15 GMT
That is so nice. I've been trying to get my partner, who is becoming a primary school teacher now but is originally a biology major, to take the snails and a couple of slugs and even eggs along and hold a biology lesson based on them. Or even take some as classroom pets! Snails are easy to keep as they survive over the weekend if prepped on Fridays and they are more sociable than fish. Perfect classroom pets.
Glad to hear the kids were interested! Maybe some will want snails as pets... I know that's how I first got into snails almost 20 years ago!
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Post by pinkunicorn on Apr 16, 2012 13:56:48 GMT
Sweet, the huddling behaviour sounds just like my current slugs. A pile of slugs is quite cute to look at. Thanks for the answers. I will be in touch for purchase soon.
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Post by pinkunicorn on Apr 5, 2012 21:19:44 GMT
Buster actually looks like s/he's getting off on the cuke there... Maybe there's some snail drug in cucumber seeds and they just don't tell us?
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Post by pinkunicorn on Apr 2, 2012 22:02:59 GMT
That looks a bit taller than most tanks, so I think it'd be good for leopard slugs. Especially with eventual mating in mind. Load it up with lots of sturdy climbing material and hanging leaves etc. I find that the actual size of the tank is of less importance if the space is used well to provide as much sliming surface as possible, so I'm trying to fill up tanks with lots sticks and leaves and elevated areas, even growing grass in the tanks. With snails of course need to take into consideration the shell, so it doesn't get stuck anywhere, but with slugs... the more there is places to climb and hide under, the better.
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Post by pinkunicorn on Apr 2, 2012 19:47:49 GMT
Another one won over to the shell-less side! Slug will rule with supreme technology and snail will... lick their shells or whatever it was that one funny guy posted a while ago on the forums. ;D I'm also in the process of getting some of these. I don't yet have the tank I want, but I'm going to look at a tall reptile tank first, and if that fails make my own. Something like this is what I have in mind, only I'm not prepared to pay quite that much as what this shop wants, it was just the first suitable link I could find. And I'm not yet 100% of the suitability, I figured I go and test one live before buying it. I've had a few much, much smaller slugs escape from a PetPal type tank's top ventilation holes when they were younger and smaller, but other than that the only time I've actually lost slugs due to escapes was when I left the lid open. Funnily enough, I've had two slugs squeeze their way in to a PetPal type tank from the outside, while they were in quarantine tupperware boxes. They escaped the boxes that I had covered with cling film, and rehomed themselves in the main tank below the tupperware boxes, lol. But for example, adult Deroceras slugs cannot squeeze their way through PetPal lids. And they're much smaller than Limax maximus, to give a bit of a picture of sluggy escaping skills. When I put babies in I put construction tape on top of the biggest ventilation slits, just to be extra sure, because the babies are very much capable of escaping.
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Post by pinkunicorn on Apr 2, 2012 14:15:25 GMT
Is this snail-soup the new trendy snail food of the moment? I don't know if you used the same recipe as in the video of Lady Escargoth, but it looks very palatable. To your snails, that is, haha. Need to try it myself... for my slimies. That retic has a very funny expression btw.
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Post by pinkunicorn on Apr 2, 2012 14:05:38 GMT
It doesn't seem like it is harmful to them, despite what one might think considering it isn't natural. But of course, there's something called the natural fallacy, a logical fallacy a lot of people make assuming what is natural is automatically good, and also that only natural things can be good. That's of course bunkum, considering many poisons are very natural and dangerous and many medicines are very "unnatural" and save lives, for example. The research has shown snails and especially slugs to be very good at picking out what's good and what's not good for them, and they tend to refuse foods at least lacking in the nutrients they need. So as odd as milk sounds as snail food and it's not something I'd think about giving to them if I had to pick out obvious snail foods, it doesn't appear to be harmful given just how much your snails enjoy eating it, especially if this wasn't the first time. I need to experiment with this myself. After all, all foods are just nutrients in the end and the only possibly problematic nutrient in milk I can think of is lactose, and maybe casein. I actually read somewhere about snail digestive enzymes and they had a few more than humans have, which means they are able to gain nourishment from everything humans are and more.
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Post by pinkunicorn on Apr 2, 2012 13:52:53 GMT
It does sound like he needed some pepping up with the protein in his diet!
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Post by pinkunicorn on Apr 2, 2012 9:42:43 GMT
Ooh that is a very nice view into her mouth, to see how it works. It's a bit different depending on the species. I also find it funny you are feeding her like a baby! How have they tolerated the milk btw? It's not a natural food to them, yet appears very palatable which usually in the case of snails and slugs equals something they find very nutritious. They should develop an aversion to unfit foods.
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Post by pinkunicorn on Apr 1, 2012 23:42:59 GMT
Umm this isn't a snail picture, but the pile of slug reminded me of it a lot so posting it here. Pile of puppy. Some to-be seeing-eye pups.
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Post by pinkunicorn on Apr 1, 2012 22:46:54 GMT
Sluggies are awesomely lovely creatures, and so underrated. They can do all these funny things that snails can't, such as stuff themselves into a broccoli: There's about five sluglets hiding in the broccoli. Shame the pic is blurry. I also have a celery stalk remain (organic, as celery has lots of pesticides usually) planted in the tank. This one time, which I sadly didn't get a picture of, it was stuffed to the brim with slugs. They sleep between the remaining 5-6 small stalks and leaves. I'll try to get a picture next time I see them doing it.
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Post by pinkunicorn on Apr 1, 2012 17:32:26 GMT
I didn't see anyone addressing anyone directly as stupid here. What's being said is that involving oneself with certain reckless behaviour is stupid, in some people's opinion. I find that perfectly OK to say, and I even find myself at the receptive end of that critique in this topic, at least to a degree. It's always OK to criticise behaviour or ideas calling them stupid, only sometimes OK to criticise individual people by calling them stupid. I say sometimes and not never, because never is a bit too restrictive for those rare situations that call for it.
Nightangel, I'd like to give you a little friendly advice, though. Respect is always earned, not demanded and thus received. That you say you can "take on any person here" is not something I consider a reason for respect, personally. I'm well proficient at chewing people into little bits leaving them crawling out of forums, too, but in reality it takes more effort not to sometimes. It's a choice we make. I find the effort taken both worth it and more respectable than resorting to call people names etc. Your first post here was not something I'd give you respect for, to be honest, because you seemed to jump at the few less nice comments and ignored the rest of the posts, which contained the excellent, constructive criticism and pretty much labelled every poster as childish and rude, which was not the case at all. But worry not, I don't condemn people for such because of individual posts, I just want you to know how your post came off. You're better off taking a breather and reading through your post next time, if you're feeling emotional while composing it. You seem to take a very confrontational attitude, which isn't really needed here at all. You also seem to read that into posts of others, where it isn't implied by any means.
I notice I might come off as a little patronising sometimes, btw. That's an unintended side-effect of trying to phrase my posts quite neutrally, whilst still maintaining my personal flavour of wit between the lines.
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Post by pinkunicorn on Apr 1, 2012 10:29:21 GMT
Yup. As I said before, copigeon's questions are important not only to possible future customers but to John and Jane as advice and pitfalls to think about. The concerns presented by others come from potential customers, and if they're not answered early on it's bound to come bite someone, especially John and Jane, in the ass later. And to speak as someone who would like to take part into something like this for my own hobby reasons, I want to know what I'm getting into, preferably publicly so there's some degree of accountability present. I also want a definitive answer to all the questions presented, and more. I need to know that there's actual solutions thought of for situations when things don't go as expected. Murphy's Law tends to happen a lot. I don't want to hear "what do we do now?" when the shit hits the fan and business doesn't go as expected, there needs to be some plan before it happens.
I really hope for their own sake that anyone with aspirations to see the promised happen, to expand the availability of pet species in large scale, asks the same questions. It's also for the sake of John and Jane here, to help their effort to avoid as many avoidable pitfalls as possible. For your own sake, John and Jane, if you're genuine about this (which I hope) then please answer the questions and show how you plan to do this.
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Post by pinkunicorn on Apr 1, 2012 10:01:51 GMT
I think you can. Calcium carbonate, which the shell is made of, is not soluble in acetone as far as I remember. Nail polish removers are designed for ceratine, the main material of human nails, so don't use non-acetone or acetone-free remover. The chemicals in those might break down calcium carbonate. Plain acetone dilution from a pharmacy or a nail-polish remover with an acetone-oil mixture is the best. I'd use a Q-tip, too, to make sure the acetone is only in contact with a minimal amount of shell, plus wipe with wet tissue afterwards to remove residue.
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Post by pinkunicorn on Mar 31, 2012 23:30:09 GMT
I was wondering why is my snail forum giving me pictures of cats.... seems like AdBlock has a nice april fools going on! I started thinking just how awesome this feature would be if it allowed you to choose your own pictures to display instead of ads. Can you see SnailBlock, every ad replaced with a picture of a snail? Or dogs, or whatever you fancy... but I'd like my SlugBlock or SnailBlock. adblockforchrome.blogspot.com/2012/03/inturdusing-catblock.html <-- I'll be there to campaign to make this a permanent feature with an option to choose the pictures.
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Post by pinkunicorn on Mar 31, 2012 23:19:57 GMT
I've really fallen for slugs (as people probably already guessed, judging by how much I babble on about my little sluggies all around the forums...) I, too, adore nudibranchs! If they weren't so damn picky eaters (Portuguese man-o-wars for dinner every day, anyone?!), I'd take some as pets. Snails are easier to keep, of course, starting from very simple handling issues one might run into with slugs. If a slug is sitting tight somewhere and you really need him to move to clean the box or whatever... that slug is gonna keep sitting there as long as he wants, or you need to risk hurting him a little to move him. I've solved this with plastic tweezers: I put the tweezers against the slug's tail on both sides, and press ever so lightly, just enough to get the slug moving as it thinks something is about to grab its tail.
I might have to say I prefer slugs just a tiny bit over snails, now that I've gotten to know them better. My slugs are a very active species, so they're fun to observe. I love both, though.
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Post by pinkunicorn on Mar 31, 2012 23:07:50 GMT
Glad to hear you've made through it all, blondekiss! Or, are coping and things are better. Issues like that are a lifelong battle. Re: the chocolate matter still... Being a lizard might be truer than one would expect! Dislike/like of chocolate might be wired into our biology. www.gilttaste.com/stories/329-confessions-of-a-chocolate-hater
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Post by pinkunicorn on Mar 31, 2012 21:57:16 GMT
Lovely snail.
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Post by pinkunicorn on Mar 31, 2012 20:37:15 GMT
Oh, sad/happysad to see the older photos of the slugs that have passed away... especially the pic with the two adults sleeping in a pot, skin to skin. Glad I took the photos, even if looking at them now makes me miss them. Anyway, I got some new photos. Baby (the aspersa, it's what he's called) dropped off the lid as I opened it (he's a weird snail, makes a slime film for the day and doesn't sleep foot attached to the wall like the rest do, thus he drops off easily, poor thing). I didn't pick him up right away, but when I did... this is what I saw. Two sluglets had crawled into his shell. I decided to move the snailies into a separate box then, in case the babies irritated the snails. They've never seemed bothered by the slug slime or anything, though. I've been thinking of releasing them sluggies to the wild... but then I look into the box, lift a salad leaf and this is what I see: a slimey pile of slug, under every leaf. They really seem to seek each other's company for sleeping and just slugging about. They even share the tastiest bits of food most of the time, I see three individuals feeding on the same pellet without a fight... And I start wondering if these individuals would live happier in captivity, after all. They're used to things that would be impossible for them in the wild, most of the time. It's a very short-lived species, too, so I don't know how well they'd adjust. I think I'll just keep them all and train them to be my living compost. With about 70 of them, they should be able to demolish some amount of kitchen waste, hehe. And here's a handful or two of them sluglets. And the last remaining adult. He's doing pretty good, and I hope he'll do fine for a good while more, despite being quite old for this species. I'm quite curious how long the little ones will live with the rich diet I'm feeding them. It's probably quite a bit more protein than what they'd get in nature, and yet a bit less than what they'd eat if given choice (I only give them pellets every other day, they'd eat them every night if given). Here in the picture I've just put the pellets in. It takes about 20 seconds for the first itty bitty to smell and find the yummy bites. And here's Baby again. I gave them some soaked dried fig and date to try and discovered that my snail is a real culinarist. He had a selection of fig, date, tomato, cucumber, lettuce and goldfish pellet and he kept taking a bite or two of each, then moving to the next, and to the next... for a few hours!
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Post by pinkunicorn on Mar 31, 2012 19:37:54 GMT
Glad to see Jupiter rehomed happily!
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Post by pinkunicorn on Mar 31, 2012 19:32:23 GMT
I've a few questions of the velvet slugs... just how flat are they, as in, how small holes are big enough for them to escape through? They seem about the same size as my Deroceras slugs, except a whole lot wider, so I wonder if my current techniques for preventing sluggy escapes will work. What's the average life span? How well do they breed in captivity? What's the background of the slugs you have, have you had to do inbreeding at some point? What's the preferred food? Lots of decomposing plant matter, fresh plants, algae or omnivorous diets? Do they accept fish food for example? How social are they, as in are they happy to live with several slugs in the same box?
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Post by pinkunicorn on Mar 31, 2012 19:14:29 GMT
Talking about poop... Something odd I've noticed with my sluggies for as long I've had them. They always poop two poops: there's one "normal" poop, as in looks the same colour as what the slug ate etc. normal characteristics of mollusc poop that everyone has noticed. Then there's a second little drop of pure white poop. The white poop comes out of the gut after the normal poop, and usually the slug discards it in the same pile with the normal poop, sometimes they move a little and discard it in a separate pile. I'm wondering if this is something special to Deroceras slugs, or something that other slugs do as well. Does anyone have erm, poop experience? I'm gonna get some L. maximus soonish from a friend's suffering garden, so I will report what I discover in their droppings (for science). But dunno yet when I find the little buggers, I think it needs to rain a bit for them to come out properly.
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Post by pinkunicorn on Mar 31, 2012 19:01:45 GMT
Prowl. You using blue snail varnish ? ;D ;D ;D Fixed that for you. The baby has cute tentacles. Can't see the rest of him!! I hope he makes it to a ripe age.
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Post by pinkunicorn on Mar 31, 2012 18:33:31 GMT
I like to give people the benefit of doubt, even when some details don't match, as long as I have nothing to lose personally (which basically means, until I need to sign my name on anything; I'm nice, or try to be, not dumb). I know from experience that some folks I condemned to be frauds or fools based on their text-communication turned out to be nice, honest folks when I met them offline; they simply got "read wrong" by others because they didn't realise how their text came off to others. It's very easy to get flustered and emotional in online discussions, especially when it seems others are attacking you (though they may not mean it as badly as you perceive it), and the resulting forum posts may not be the best representation of a person. I guess everyone who's spent some years as a community moderator knows what I'm talking about, hehe. That's part of the reason I'm still calling for open discussion here. The textbook tactic of fraudsters is to back out angrily, and if John and Jane are genuinely building this idea it'd be a shame to lose reputation at such an early stage. (the above bits were written somewhat as a response/continuation to thoughts expressed by Caz before copigeon's post, btw. I didn't bother quoting as I wasn't replying to anything specific, but I thought I'd get the post done to appear after her post, but I'm slow a slug ) [...]and pinkuniform brings the interesting introspective of someone who has potentially been told differently of what you defend publicly? I've not actually been in private contact with the OP (as I said, I prefer to nail out the details in an open thread before making any commitments), but this is indeed an interesting question that I was wondering about, as well. I'd really like to hear from others who have entertained the idea of participating, not least because I've has well.
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Post by pinkunicorn on Mar 31, 2012 17:13:45 GMT
Reading a bit more thoroughly this time around... You got some of your snail biology wrong. "as poor as a snails eye sight is, snails can identify an other snail thrugh glass and theirfor the snails kept in the tanks can still have their interaction as well as their own private space"I'm pretty sure the current scientific consensus is that a snail cannot see through the glass, let alone realise it is a glass wall there. Snails only see in lights and shadows. Their eyes do not have enough optic nerve endings to construct what we'd understand as real "vision". They identify other creatures by smell (their "nose" being located in the tentacles, both upper and lower), and perhaps taste in terms of mating (judging by the "nibbly" behaviour many species display before mating). I always found this a pretty good demonstration of snail vision, although it's not from a proper journal, of course. Oh, and... I see you clarified there that you want wild-caught specimens (I understood previously that you'd take both). That's something I addressed in my first post: the ecological damage done to the native environment of the snails when they are poached in large numbers. That's not good, I'm sure you agree. If you ask people to send you wild-caught specimens, then how do you make sure your operation does not add to the damage done to the environment? Trusting the sender is not good enough, obviously. Anyone can lie. It needs some regulation, some standardisation, some limit to the amount caught and sent so that the native population does not diminish and suffer as a result of your actions (I put the highest fault on the receiver always, because there's no supply without demand; this isn't just about you two personally, you just happen to be the receivers in such a trade).
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