|
Post by pinkunicorn on Feb 8, 2013 1:56:25 GMT
Congrats on the successful hunt! Do you know what species he is? If not, post a few pics and we can try to ID him.
|
|
|
Post by pinkunicorn on Feb 7, 2013 22:40:35 GMT
Sent from my GT-I9300 using proboards Attachments:
|
|
|
Post by pinkunicorn on Feb 7, 2013 22:39:55 GMT
Sent from my GT-I9300 using proboards Attachments:
|
|
|
Post by pinkunicorn on Feb 7, 2013 22:28:12 GMT
And here's little Alfie's tasting yet again new mushroom flavours with good appetite. I'm so glad I have access to up to 10 different fresh mushrooms regularly from the smallish supermarket around the corner, instead of just the normal champignons or button shrooms. Actual forest mushrooms! Oyster shrooms! Shiitake! Chantarelles! Black trumpets! Sluggy's paradise. Sent from my GT-I9300 using proboards Attachments:
|
|
|
Post by pinkunicorn on Feb 7, 2013 22:00:45 GMT
Thanks. Yeah, it's really interesting to follow the development of these guys. If you wanna do a swap later in the spring I will have some leatherleaf babies available! Just git my second batch of eggs, too. Sent from my GT-I9300 using proboards Attachments:
|
|
|
Post by pinkunicorn on Feb 7, 2013 21:56:09 GMT
Hi and welcome! You will get lucky eventually, so keep looking. Now that spring is almost here there will be early stragglers looking for food soon. They will be glad to find an adoptive home with plenty of grub to fill their bellies.
|
|
|
Post by pinkunicorn on Feb 7, 2013 21:48:42 GMT
Snails and slugs, and leopard slugs in particular, don't go too far from their preferred place of rest/hiding. So if you saw a leopard you know his home is within a few metres, perhaps a radius of 10 metres. Look under stones, fallen trees etc good hiding places that are moist and protected from sunlight. You might find some hiding during daytime.
Leopards like meat, btw, so you could try putting some unsalted meat somewhere where birds and other big animals can't get to it. Many slugs eat their dead so if you find a dead one there will be cousins feasting on the body the following night.
|
|
|
Post by pinkunicorn on Feb 7, 2013 19:23:06 GMT
This is a big problem in my tanks. Very annoying. Thanks for the tips, I'm going to try a few and hope to see their numbers drop!
They also seem to live in flowerpots, and my partner being a plant-lover we got a ton of pots in every room. I wish they stuck to the pots and didn't fill my tanks...
|
|
|
Post by pinkunicorn on Feb 7, 2013 18:09:06 GMT
It really looks like a disc shaped shell, it's just the right angle to fool the eye. Even after seeing the other pics it looks like disc!
|
|
|
Post by pinkunicorn on Feb 7, 2013 16:53:04 GMT
On the same raunchy topic, snail sperm comes in many forms. And apparently our little slimy friends, already having the very best sex lives if the animal kingdom (plants beat even snails), they also mate for social reasons. That's the only explanation I've reasoned for what happens in this video. Big G and Arlene (RIP my darlings; hopefully you met again in the land of eternal cucumbers to continue your sticky love affair) only ever had eyestalks for each other and mated many times judging by the sperm blobs I found in the mornings. But it wasn't to produce offspring, as you clearly see in the video! www.youtube.com/watch?v=fw4ymI2VMHk&feature=youtube_gdata_player
|
|
|
Post by pinkunicorn on Feb 7, 2013 13:11:49 GMT
www.amazon.co.uk/AWS-Jewelry-GPR-20-Gemini-PRO-Milligram/dp/B003STEJD4/ref=pd_sxp_f_ptOr a jewelry scale? That's a bit pricey, probably can find a cheaper one. But it's an idea of what to look for. This one also goes up to 20g only, up to at least 100g sounds more useful forsnails. But I'm unfamiliar with these things, bigger range may mean higher price. Getting two with lesser ranges might end up being cheaper. If you also plan on measuring bigger snails like achatinas, that is!
|
|
|
Post by pinkunicorn on Feb 7, 2013 13:08:04 GMT
Hi and welcome! I already said hi elsewhere but just noticed this topic. I suspected you were a student! It's so cool you're going for zoology and you're definitely in the right place if you wanna chat snaily biology stuff in a relaxed environment, we got several folks here into that as well as petkeeping.
Those snails sound very interesting and I'm waiting to hear more of your observations!
You probably need a scale capable of weighing milligrams at least, if not micrograms. Perhaps a pharmacist's scale would do?
|
|
|
Post by pinkunicorn on Feb 7, 2013 12:54:39 GMT
You can use the normal bbCode tags like (i)(/i) for italics etc, as well. Only replace the ( )'s with [ ]'s, the square brackets. And I recommend replacing any long links with for example www.tinyurl.com 's short links to save precious characters!
|
|
|
Post by pinkunicorn on Feb 7, 2013 12:51:08 GMT
Perhaps a human calcium/vitamin D supplement is useful for this patient to get his shell strengthened from within.
|
|
|
Post by pinkunicorn on Feb 7, 2013 12:48:50 GMT
That looks corroded to me, like some kind of acid has done the damage. It could be new substrate that has lower pH or maybe some acidic food in contact with the shell? Have you done any changes in the terrarium that could have lowered the pH?
You can neutralise the substrate by mixing some limestone powder into it, or pure calcium carbonate. Maybe take the snaily separate and feed him extra calcium. You could put some plaster of Paris carefully over the hole, on top of a tiny bit of gauze for example.
|
|
|
Post by pinkunicorn on Feb 7, 2013 12:34:39 GMT
Nice to know my snails are covered in jizz o.O! Hahaha!!! This calls for a joke about pollen. It's the plant equivalent of just that. And they spread it absolutely all over the place. Naughty things, those plants. (Once you have a biologist's mindset you'll never look at the world the same way...)
|
|
|
Post by pinkunicorn on Feb 7, 2013 11:56:49 GMT
I've noticed this in all my albino tigers and fulis, as well as in my Deroceras slugs that are not albino. I assumed it's normal as they are otherwise healthy. A diet heavy in carotenoids is known to turn healthy humans a little yellowish, so this is probably the same effect in action. Carotenoids are found in carrots as the name suggests, but also in a wide variety of vegetables, and also in fish food as a dye to give goldfish improved colour. They may have antioxidant properties so they might be good for you despite the tinting, if consumed via food in normal quantities and not overdosed via supplements. Antioxidants are known to be harmful when in very large quantities, as usually gained via supplementing, but fish food doesn't count as that high dose! (Studies show that people who eat a diet rich in veggies and fruits with carotenoids live longer than those who don't, but on the other hand people who get their carotenoids etc from supplements actually die earlier than those who don't eat lots of veggies. This paradox is explained by the old but true saying - it's the dose that makes the poison.)
It probably happens in your normal retics as well, if they eat the same diet but you don't notice it as their darker natural pigment masks it. Though you could try putting them on a diet high in orange foods and really dark greens, and see if they get any yellow tint!
|
|
|
Post by pinkunicorn on Feb 7, 2013 10:14:18 GMT
I ran into it on an Australian natural history museum's site. They were talking about their showcase of live invertebrates, including snails, slugs and snugs, and the picture clearly showed a semi-slug (one that had a flat shell completely covered with mantle, but it stuck out quite prominently). It's such a funny portmanteau I can't believe I've never seen it before. But it's definitely my new term for semi-slugs!
|
|
|
Post by pinkunicorn on Feb 6, 2013 19:17:26 GMT
I will get some pics under the microscope soon. The details of the embryo are visible with bare eyes but I can't get good pics with normal camera. Sent from my GT-I9300 using proboards Attachments:
|
|
|
Post by pinkunicorn on Feb 6, 2013 19:08:48 GMT
I could actually see some movement. They are kind of rotating which is funny! Sent from my GT-I9300 using proboards Attachments:
|
|
|
Post by pinkunicorn on Feb 6, 2013 18:58:40 GMT
Slug embryos. ;D Sent from my GT-I9300 using proboards Attachments:
|
|
|
Post by pinkunicorn on Feb 6, 2013 17:06:12 GMT
I'm pampering them silly. They are so precious, I want all 7 to make it to adults so that I get more babies. I had hoped I could offer a few for exchange but not yet out of this batch. Need more survivors.
|
|
|
Post by pinkunicorn on Feb 5, 2013 20:15:26 GMT
I'm not sure if I'd say slugs are closely related gastropods, since slugs (and snugs) appear in almost all taxonomic branches of the gastropod tree. Some slugs are very closely related to some snails, but not close at all to other slugs. Rather the slug form, and the snug form, is just another evolutionary stage for gastropods. They have full shells, no vestigial shell and every possible amount of shell between those two extremes, all mixed up in the family tree. But that's nitpicking!
|
|
|
Post by pinkunicorn on Feb 5, 2013 17:15:38 GMT
Ooh now that I see the other side of the shell... it actually looks a lot like an Achatina achatina baby! It's definitely a giant African land snail baby. Maybe an Archachatina? I'm not so good at picking them apart. But I have tiger snails and I got them as babies, and this one looks very much alike. Can you entice the little guy out so we can see his face? Tiger snails have very "chubby" faces which is a bit different from many other giant African land snails that are more "slender". Added a picture of a baby, apparently half a year old tiger snail for comparison. Silly link only wants to go to the top of the post for some reason, alas.
|
|
|
Post by pinkunicorn on Feb 5, 2013 17:11:48 GMT
Haha, I've been ninja'd about the book.
|
|