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Post by Liguus on Jul 13, 2015 3:35:51 GMT
Pretty much the same care as any other snail: fruit, vegetables, a protein source, coco fiber soil, and cuttlebone. I would try to recreate its natural habitat if I were you, so I would go with shallow water dish, or likely just keep the soil itself very moist.
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Post by Liguus on Jul 12, 2015 23:06:35 GMT
It's an amber snail.
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Post by Liguus on Jul 12, 2015 4:26:53 GMT
Sorry, but it's nearly impossible to identify without pics or location info.
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Post by Liguus on Jul 11, 2015 17:45:50 GMT
I don't think I will make "gel" type foods anymore as the gelatin & agar seemed like a bunch of non-nutritious 'bulk' in the mix. I will still have to make prepared foods out of necessity though (i'm going to collect various florida tree snails species in about a week) but this time I plan on just making a thick smoothie-type paste every few days. I'm still thinking up an exact recipe.
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Post by Liguus on Jul 10, 2015 3:42:09 GMT
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Post by Liguus on Jul 8, 2015 16:30:50 GMT
Where did you find it? When there is one snail in a location there is often more nearby. The best time to look around is right after it rains.
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Post by Liguus on Jul 8, 2015 16:24:28 GMT
If it has already mated then it could lay eggs soon. But alone it likely will not self-fertilize (this is very rare for snails).
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Post by Liguus on Jul 8, 2015 15:01:25 GMT
Snails don't bite. They have a radula in their mouth that they use to scrape at the surface of food, and they don't have teeth to bite with. Sometimes a snail might rasp your skin briefly but it's a tickling sensation and not painful, and with very small snails you might not even be able to feel it. Information about the radula: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RadulaThanks for telling me one more question please why my snail's sheall is transparent also it itswlf is transparent I searched pics of his breed on internwt but all thier colors were dark but mine is transparent why? That's just the type of snail it is, with a clear shell. I wish I could tell you the species off the top of my head, but I;m not familiar with indian snails.
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Post by Liguus on Jul 8, 2015 3:04:29 GMT
I know where to find wild Helix pomatia in the USA, but it seems SnailsInTheMail also caters to the escargot business. I just couldn't have a good conscience knowing I'm giving people snails so they can eat them (I even was offered $10 per snail by someone who wanted escargot!).
Hopefully most of your customers will be buying pets!
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Post by Liguus on Jul 8, 2015 2:56:22 GMT
Sorry for your loss. This looks like an amazing amber snail! Sorry if this is sensitive, but if you preserve it in alcohol maybe the exact species could be determined. No guarantee but I could show it to some zoologists who know quite a bit more than me about snails.
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Post by Liguus on Jul 7, 2015 14:41:55 GMT
Access was denied when I tried to see the photo as well.
To answer your question: It is likely not dangerous. There are no venomous land snails.
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Post by Liguus on Jul 3, 2015 4:29:49 GMT
I suppose your snails could get protein from eating them, but since fruit flies are so small it likely would not be significant. I myself think I'm going to try a fruit fly trap on top of my terrariums to see if it works. I usually have to do a deep clean when fruit flies start living with my snails though.
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Post by Liguus on Jul 2, 2015 15:08:36 GMT
What kind of filtration system do you have for the aquarium?
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Post by Liguus on Jul 2, 2015 0:34:23 GMT
Good question, personally I don't see why not. Usually snails aren't allowed, but that law refers to "pests" and since these aren't the airlines likely wouldn't care. Although recently when my boss was traveling back to the USA from the Dominican republic he had to fill out a form that he wasn't smuggling anything and snails were on the list. Likely the airline would waste your time with an investigation unless you had written permission. I was offered a letter of permission from the USDA but I figured it wasn't necessary, since I'm traveling by car and if anyone brought it up when I'm selling them I could just bring up screenshots of the emails I received.
P.S.- list of species updated in first post
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Post by Liguus on Jul 1, 2015 15:31:19 GMT
They look very similar to the Mesodon I found in illinois (due to the appearance of the shell), and the fact that they are 1 inch long leads me to believe this is likely the genus. - petsnails.proboards.com/thread/14935/species-todays-spring-snail-hunt Although I'm not certain about which speceis in the genus they could be. Maybe there is a visual guide of the land snails in Pennsylvania online somewhere. Perhaps they could be something different all together. I'll check some of my books to see if I can find anything similar.
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Post by Liguus on Jun 30, 2015 20:22:33 GMT
I do know a little about the artificial diets that were used in captivity though, basically just blended food smeared onto branches or glass. No sense in growing lichens IMO if the blended food works. The University of Florida reared four generations in captivity on it in their conservation effort, and had a very high (I think it was near 100% successful ) amount of hatchlings. I'm not sure about the exact formula yet, but I don't believe the ingredients different to much from a standard diet. Another method I've heard is used is to make a slurry that mold will grow on, and they will eat that. I haven't gotten a chance to test out my feeding ideas, but I will likely make a post about it in August.
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Post by Liguus on Jun 29, 2015 16:52:25 GMT
They also probably need a UV lizard light above the terrarium. One person I spoke with said theirs were not doing very well until he got one. Apparently tree snails rely on UV light more than other species. (Caracolus marginella do not seem to need it though).
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Post by Liguus on Jun 29, 2015 16:46:14 GMT
There are rumors that tree snails are difficult to feed. I have never attempted to feed tree snails "normal" food before, So I'm not sure if that works. Other people claim they only eat lichen. I do know a little about the artificial diets that were used in captivity though, basically just blended food smeared onto branches or glass. I think I would smear it onto cuttle bone personally so that they are encouraged to rasp that as well. Most likely a mix of fruit, veg, mushrooms, and dog food.
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Post by Liguus on Jun 28, 2015 14:54:28 GMT
It also looks like osmocote fertilizer pellets to me. After they have been exposed to rain a few times they get transparent like this.
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Post by Liguus on Jun 28, 2015 1:04:25 GMT
Sometimes you have to go through the substrate a few times really slowly. Zachrysia are very good at digging deep into the soil. Do you think it's possible he escaped?
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Post by Liguus on Jun 25, 2015 19:12:47 GMT
Making a trap is easy, but making it so that the snail can't crawl back out is a bit tricky imo. Maybe a 2L soda bottle would work. Like this but bigger so that snails can go inside: www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Yellow-Jacket-Bottle-Trap/ If you put a copper strip or copper wires under the bottle cap part before you flip it they might have harder time crawling out. Perhaps what would be better is to just put a beer soaked towel or vegetables under a large piece of flat wood, and flipping it to check for snails daily. Maybe even pour water around the area so that its moist under the wooden plank. (Make sure the gap is large enough to accommodate the species you're trying to catch).
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Post by Liguus on Jun 25, 2015 17:09:28 GMT
I'm not sure if there is a members list, but when you click "create message" in your inbox there is a place where you can find a member by typing in their username.
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Post by Liguus on Jun 25, 2015 16:11:37 GMT
I once found a large, completely black, snail in florida and kept it in a soda bottle in the hotel room. It managed to escape my soda bottle container somehow (I probably didn't secure it too well being 12 and all) and I never saw the snail again. It might have been some exotic species, or a rare color morph, since there is no other snail like it in florida.
What I would do now is probably soak a rag in beer and put that on a plate in the middle of the room. He might smell it and travel to it during the night.
I would also look for slime trails and see if you can track them to the slug. I've done this before when I brought my carnivorous plants inside and inevitably brought in some hitchhiker slugs into my living room as well.
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Post by Liguus on Jun 25, 2015 15:15:41 GMT
Cuttlebone is definitely the preferred method. Shells and coral are too hard for land snails to be interested in rasping, and supplements can often be over-injested. If they still are picky about the cuttlebone what you could do is smear some food on it (like wet dog food or mashed berries), that will attract them to it and eventually they should start eating it too.
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Post by Liguus on Jun 25, 2015 15:11:35 GMT
I see people sell Zachrysia very frequently on the US ebay. I also could collect some for you. I'm not sure about the shipping laws for Canada though.
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