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Post by pinkunicorn on Mar 1, 2012 17:16:45 GMT
That's a nice slug (and nice snailies, too!) Have you figured out yet what species he is? Is he eating yet? It took some time to get my Sluggy to eat when he first came, and I thought he wasn't eating anything... only the piles of slug poo revealed that he was eating.
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Post by pinkunicorn on Mar 1, 2012 16:36:15 GMT
I've read that the hatching time depends on how long the snail carried the fertilised eggs in its shell before laying them. Sometimes a snail might be ready to lay eggs, but the environment isn't to its preferences and it'll postpone laying until it's a bit warmer/cooler/more humid/something else. Hatching the next day is pretty extreme, though, because it could mean had the snail waited longer they would have hatched inside the snail... Some species actually do just that, the eggs hatch inside the snail and it "gives birth" to the living babies, but a species that doesn't normally do it... it could be weird! I don't know what would actually happen in such case for the mother.
But perhaps the snail knew. Maybe there's some hormonal signal that lets it know it should start laying now or else it's too late.
Congrats on the new generation in any case!
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Post by pinkunicorn on Mar 1, 2012 16:26:20 GMT
Probably a coincidence. Snails' length of life is individual, after all.
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Post by pinkunicorn on Mar 1, 2012 16:24:21 GMT
Just two random pics I took of the aspersas while playing sluglet paparazzi. Roxy has had this weird... bubble thingy on his lip for months. It looks very odd, but doesn't seem to bother him. I first thought it's in his mouth, but it's a bit lower. Baby noms on cucumber. She's been withdrawn into her shell quite a lot lately, but came out to eat a bit after she dropped from the ceiling when I removed the lid, poor thing.
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Post by pinkunicorn on Mar 1, 2012 16:15:22 GMT
Simply amazing closeups. I'm envious!
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Post by pinkunicorn on Mar 1, 2012 16:11:10 GMT
For some reason I've had this playing in my head, with the lyrics changed to "Busters!" (repeat ad nauseam)I thought I should mention this.
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Post by pinkunicorn on Mar 1, 2012 15:58:53 GMT
Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Cyclops the Wondrous One-eyed Sluglet! Like I said, he looks like a maggot, and even moreso in a photo where you can't even see the single eyestalk! I spent a good while figuring out if it's a sluglet I'm holding or something else when I first saw him... but it's 100% sluglet, with one tentacle sticking out to the side. A very small and pale one, one of the smallest. I will try to take a better picture when I next see him. I thought these turned out semi-OK, but when I saw them on the computer... not so great. And by that time he had disappeared already... until next time. This is a bigger itty bitty, off on an adventure! I like the silhouette, you can actually see the lower pair of tentacles. Itty bitty noms on a pea pod. His little head went back and forth as he focussed on the nomming task. Itty bitties. The one with orange spots on it has been nomming on tortoise food. It's the food in its guts showing through the body, hehe. Moar itty bitties. And another one nomming on tortoise food, I see. This one is, amazingly enough, taken with my cell phone camera. Itty bitty size comparison! You can really see the growth in these pictures, comparing to the first ones when the camera wouldn't even focus properly! Some of them are still that size, but others have grown so much I can see some of the distinctive "stripes" this species has on its tail. And the mantles are beginning to show on some of them.
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Post by pinkunicorn on Mar 1, 2012 12:32:00 GMT
The poor baby looks a bit like a crooked maggot, lol. It's a shame I didn't have camera at hand when I saw it... It is adorably funny looking. I will take some more pics today. The itty bitties are crawling all over the jar, exploring. And eating. Eating and eating. Sleeping, too. Itty bitties need their beauty sleep!
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Post by pinkunicorn on Feb 29, 2012 21:42:31 GMT
Thanks! News from the slugarium: I had to clean the tank today and with three dozen little maggots around my usual take-the-animals-out-toss-the-compost-in-the-oven didn't really work... I don't want to roast any babies! So I spent a good few hours removing the soil and the babies whenever I encountered any. I got almost all out, but there's still maybe five hiding. They went into a little yoghurt pot for now, just need to catch the remaining few when I see them. They are so terribly fragile I'm scared to move them. Need to catch them on pieces of food or spoon out the soil they're on. I also encountered a one-eyed slug baby! It was one of the smallest I've seen... one third the size of the biggest babies, which aren't big to begin with. It's so cool, I hope it makes it to adult. There's plenty of food for everyone so it just needs to eat. They are eating a lot, I even spotted a tiny string of green poo! And there are visible tiny holes in the cabbage. Cucumber is popular, of course. I'm also giving them tortoise food already, to ensure they grow into strong and healthy slugs.
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Post by pinkunicorn on Feb 27, 2012 20:59:08 GMT
Now that's a heresy to my inner biologist! Bugs are anything arthropoda and tend to grow eight legs at embryonic stage (whatever happens to those legs later depends)... they don't even share the same superphylum with mollusca! If they're bugs then octopuses must be bugs, too, because octopuses are closer related to snails than any type of insect or spider is.
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Post by pinkunicorn on Feb 26, 2012 22:53:45 GMT
You may be able to find leopard slugs, too. I'm gonna try to find some myself once it's warm enough for the slugs to come out. They live a few years, and they're a bigger species. Maybe leopard slug babies, too, if I manage to find two!
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Post by pinkunicorn on Feb 26, 2012 20:15:51 GMT
I thought about that, and so went digging through the compost *shudder* but managed to find her amongst some lettuce. Was well happy about that! I doubt she'd even come out of her shell the entire time, she doesn't seem very active. But then it is getting colder nowadays, so maybe she's just being dormant? She does occasionally to newer areas, but then just retracts back into her shell lol. Ahh, that's nice to hear that she returned home. Is she attached to a wall or sitting on the ground? How deep is she in the shell? It could be the cold weather that is causing her to be less active. My aspersas have been a lot less active through the winter, but as it has been getting warmer they, too, have gotten more active. Also the amount of light affects. You could try gently bathing her in warmish water, being careful that the water doesn't get into her breathing hole, however. Offer her her favourite food when she comes out!
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Post by pinkunicorn on Feb 26, 2012 20:08:21 GMT
Do they know what that fork is for?
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Post by pinkunicorn on Feb 26, 2012 20:05:36 GMT
Yeah, I think it applies to snails as well. If they're woken up, they've wasted all the energy they put into the hibernation process and when it gets cold again, they don't have the energy to do it all again because there's no food source available yet, as it's not a real spring and the real time to wake up. But I'd think captive animals differ a little, since they have food available all year long, and they usually are kept in conditions that aren't deadly (I should hope so!!), meaning if they wake up the temperature won't suddenly go below freezing and kill them off. They probably won't be very happy going repeatedly back to sleep and being woken up, but I doubt it's inherently dangerous to them, it's the external conditions that are dangerous in a wild environment. Of course, I'm no expert and perhaps mammals are different to reptiles, amphibians and bugs. And molluscs! But they aren't that different in this department, although I guess mammals have a bit better chance of surviving, due to higher body weight (in general, at least).
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Post by pinkunicorn on Feb 26, 2012 19:33:41 GMT
These are awesome. I've been looking for a kind of tall snake terrarium (those with a cool stone background and branches and stuff) suitable for snails, but I might look into making one myself now!
What kind of glue have you used for attaching the clear plastic? Any tips you could give in general?
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Post by pinkunicorn on Feb 26, 2012 18:48:12 GMT
Mine are Deroceras invadens.
I would recommend trying to find a slug that has a bit longer life cycle than Deroceras slugs, for example... unless you don't mind them living less than a year, sometimes perhaps just a few generations (and generations are quite short, they become mature at a few months age). Banana slugs are super-awesome! Though, I think my slugs are super-awesome, too. But I got them by accident. If I was choosing a slug species on purpose I'd probably go for banana slugs. Or pancake slugs, those are also funny!
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Post by pinkunicorn on Feb 26, 2012 18:12:25 GMT
Two years old topic... but I wouldn't mind joining a chat if it's still going on and others are interested!
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Post by pinkunicorn on Feb 25, 2012 23:20:14 GMT
Amazing that they stay so clean on their own! Can she escape the compost and continue her life in the wild? I hope she's not trapped in for good... Throwing snails out with food is one of my biggest snail nightmares, especially regarding my slugs, so hearing that happening makes me wince.
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Post by pinkunicorn on Feb 25, 2012 22:45:00 GMT
Thanks! I wish I had a better camera, to take better macro photos.... Need to negotiate with the BF if we'd invest together in a pro model, since we both enjoy photography. Here's more baby slugs, also a picture of the eggs as this egg was, although of a different species. Very cool, nonetheless! snailstales.blogspot.com/2009/03/baby-is-sooo-cute.html
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Post by pinkunicorn on Feb 25, 2012 21:47:00 GMT
I gotta ask, btw, how do you keep them so clean? Or have they been given a beauty treatment for the photos (like I sometimes do...)? My aspersas get themselves dirty as soon as I put them in the box after cleaning the shells, because they love burrowing. Or alternatively they topple over (because it takes a moment for them to attach to something after I put them back...) and get dirty, or climb on top of each other and either topple the other snail or otherwise dirty them. Mine have also worn out the "lip" of the shell, all except the youngest (and biggest) snail. Yours have beautiful, whole lips. Edit: The smaller one, Bell, though seems to like climbing up the blades, then ends up flopping back to the bottom of the tank lol. Lol, all my snails do the same... they climb on something that cannot hold their weight and then plop down. I posted some piccies of one doing this with carrot stalks in my piccy topic!
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Post by pinkunicorn on Feb 25, 2012 20:33:21 GMT
Aspersas are very nice snails. They come for free, and they are easy to keep. And despite being small and nothing out of ordinary they have personality! I'm posting the baby pics from the other topic in this "family album", too: But first, a proud parent. Well, possibly. Actually I hope this is an uncle or aunt or other relative. I'd like the babies to be from the passed-away slugs, so that they got their genes passed on to the next generation! This darling still has her chances to get some babies into the world (I am leaving a few eggs here and there, though removing most now...) Annnnd... babies! We're so transparent that the camera's focus doesn't find us when we climb on the plastic wall... Before hatching: Just hatching:
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Post by pinkunicorn on Feb 25, 2012 20:21:53 GMT
Here is the little fella in the egg. You could see the eyestalks and the bottom of the foot as it was going round and round inside the egg, slowly but noticeably. In the picture, you can see the eyestalks as the darker bits and just can make out the outline of the body: he's curved to the left, head on the right upper side of the egg and tail below the head. I put the egg in a visible place, and managed to look at it when he started coming out. I took a series of pictures of him emerging, but sadly most were too blurry to see anything. Here he is almost fully out already, the tip of the tail just slipping out of the remains of the egg.
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Post by pinkunicorn on Feb 25, 2012 18:58:50 GMT
Amazing, I'm holding an egg and watching the baby move inside. It's preparing to hatch I think. Shame my camera can't take good enough macro pics.
It has eyestalks out inside the egg and all. It's circling around.
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Post by pinkunicorn on Feb 25, 2012 16:06:27 GMT
Yup! They're aspersas.
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Post by pinkunicorn on Feb 25, 2012 13:58:18 GMT
I think a good rule of thumb for snailery materials is that it's OK for snails if you could keep your tongue on it for several hours a day without getting disgusted by it or physically ill. Or think materials you'd make your cutlery from to make it even simpler. Also applies to seams and any other stuff than just the walls.
Plastic pet boxes are OK. Glass aquariums are OK. Hard plastic that doesn't leak odours or flavours is OK. I bet there's other stuff, too, if you keep that rule of thumb in mind when looking. Food-grade materials are probably OK, such as food-grade silicon sealants. (probably the aquarium sealants are such, in fact)
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