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Post by lorisarvendu on Nov 6, 2022 11:49:02 GMT
Hi all Been away from the forum for a l-o-n-g time, but I still have Franklin, my Tiger (Achatina achatina) who I purchased off of Ebay in 2014. So he's not doing too bad for 8 years old. His mate, Moseley, is about 5, but they are still producing eggs, a clutch of which I have allowed to hatch because a friend's g/f wants one. Luckily I have an exotic pets shop in the area who will take them off me when old enough. Say hello Franklin!
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Post by lorisarvendu on Mar 15, 2017 19:51:18 GMT
Snails gone to good home.
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Post by lorisarvendu on Mar 5, 2017 8:37:07 GMT
I would have taken, but I live far away.Also I want Achatina tiger They are achatina tiger.
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Post by lorisarvendu on Feb 27, 2017 9:32:15 GMT
Hatched around July, these are from a clutch from unrelated parents, so should be good stock.
This is the wrong time of year to send them in the post, as they will likely freeze while their package is sitting around in the Post Office, and they will probably be too big by the time the warmer weather comes along, so if anyone would like them, I would prefer someone in the Notts/Derby/Leics area so we can perhaps meet up.
I am quite happy to drive up to about 10 miles from where I live (Long Eaton) so long as you tip me a fiver for the petrol!
I can provide photos if requested, but their parents Franklin and Bonaparte can be seen in the Pictures section.
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Post by lorisarvendu on Aug 30, 2016 15:31:05 GMT
A late update, 'cos I've been busy with hols etc. In the end only 3 snails hatched! Perhaps I should say "survived" as there were a few tiny "empty" shells dotted about, so I've no idea what happened there. Very surprising to get only three from two large clutches, but at least I'm not overrun. I'll probably post a couple of photos when they get a bit bigger.
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Post by lorisarvendu on Jun 16, 2016 10:54:40 GMT
I bought one of these as well (though not for the £99 price!) and things do look a bit more positive. The substrate is coir which is drier than peat or compost, and I messaged the seller back to confirm this. He says he uses it for all his snails, so since he appears to have sold Tigers before, they must thrive in it.
It was posted very quickly and in fact I wasn't expecting it till Friday (when someone would have been home) but I got home yesterday to find a "We tried to deliver" card through the letterbox. ARgh!! Luckily our sorting office is open till 8pm on Wednesday, so I went and picked it up.
The snail was retracted, though no more than normal for a Tiger, and came out after a bit of washing in warm water. It seemed to suffer no ill effects, had a wander round my hand, then climbed over some cucumber and cuttlefish.
There was a bit of irregularity in the outer lip as well, but nothing that a few weeks of growth wouldn't sort out. The shell bands seem quite evenly spaced as well, indicating reasonably robust feeding and growth.
I'm not happy with coir as I can't see it as a natural substrate in the wild, and I suspect the seller either uses it because it's cheap, or because it's environmentally friendly. Myself I just go with Sphagnum Moss Peat, as that's what I use for my carnivorous plants and my Tigers are 3 years old now and seem quite happy living in it.
One thing to remember is that albinism is a genetic defect and can have other effects on an animal's health, such as increased susceptibility to infection or cancer from UV. I don't know how relevant these would be to a snail (they certainly don't sunbathe), but I'm pretty certain these are not a naturally-occurring subspecies. All these snails are probably descended from a single pair of albinos and may possibly be third generation or more. I would be very suspect of any future albino Tigers being offered on eBay within the next few years (especially from this seller) as they would almost certainly be very closely related. As such there is a strong possibility of other genetic disorders along with the albinism.
Depending on how strong the albino gene is, I'd be inclined to pair them with ordinary Tigers to strengthen the gene pool, then keep an eye out for the odd Albino in future clutches. Personally I just wanted a white snail because I thought it looked cool!
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Post by lorisarvendu on Jun 13, 2016 18:48:55 GMT
Good grief. The saga continues. I was cleaning the big fellas out this evening. Lifted up one of the flowerpots and found this underneath. I don't know who laid these, or how they got them underneath a flowerpot. Here we go again.
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Post by lorisarvendu on Jun 12, 2016 14:17:17 GMT
Hmph. #depressed. My earlier discovery of a second snail was either the first one having grown a few more stripes on the shell, or it has been eaten (shell and all), as after all this time I have only seen one hatchling. Yup, all those eggs are duds. I found a few partially-unhatched ones and assumed they were in the process of hatching, but they weren't. Either that or they died half-way out. There are still a large bunch of them left, but no life at all. One hatchling, that's all that made it out.
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Post by lorisarvendu on May 26, 2016 9:51:19 GMT
Oh my gosh I am in love, congratulations Yes, canibalism is pretty popular, they catch easy calcium and proteins, that's why I take away hatched kids from incubator to separate "kinder-garden box" Yup I've done that. The eggs are very slow to hatch, but there are the odd one or two showing signs of life. I'm not sure how long I should wait though, it's been just over 5 weeks since laying. Here's one of the new ones exploring the side of the "kinder-garden box"
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Post by lorisarvendu on May 25, 2016 10:54:05 GMT
Well things are progressing very slowly and very strangely. There are still a huge amount of eggs there, and so far I only seem to have had 2 live hatchlings. However I've found at least 10 "empty" shells. By that I mean snail shells, not egg shells. Some of them are completely out of the egg, others are partially out, or have bits of shell stuck to them. But all of them are empty.
Has anyone ever experienced this before? I've moved the two live hatchlings into another smaller container with a small heat pad on the side so I can keep track of them. Do hatchlings cannibalise unhatched eggs for the calcium? If so, do they somehow target immature eggs, or eggs where the inhabitant has died?
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Post by lorisarvendu on May 21, 2016 9:33:43 GMT
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Post by lorisarvendu on May 20, 2016 17:14:01 GMT
I've been carefully poking about the soil and I've found these two objects. The first one is a different snail to the one I found earlier, so at least two have hatched. The second one is interesting. It appears to be an empty immature shell. Obviously snails must begin to build up a few layers of shell while they're still in the egg, but this one may have died and dissolved back into the contents of it's egg, and then one of the other hatchlings ate the egg from around it, exposing this empty shell. I can't imagine that it would have hatched and then been eaten by one of it's siblings. I'm pretty certain there are more of them in there, because although there are still several eggs dotted about, I'm also starting to see egg fragments. I've sprinkled cuttle-shell crumbs throughout the soil to see if that cuts down on the inevitable calcium cannibalising!
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Post by lorisarvendu on May 18, 2016 21:30:35 GMT
Wahey! 4 weeks to the day (April 20th) the first snail has hatched! At this stage it is the same size as the egg it came from - about 8mm. Note the remains of shell on the back.
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Post by lorisarvendu on May 14, 2016 8:18:53 GMT
I take it back. It is a big tank now you see it in relation to the snails. We have cats and their reaction to snails is amusing. I think the snails are just on the boundary between "you move fast enough for me to chase" and "you're just an object, I'll ignore you".
When I have my snails out, the cats can plainly see their slow movement, but it doesn't activate their chase reflex, so they just sit and stare at them, unable to decide what category to put them in, "prey" or "part of the furniture".
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Post by lorisarvendu on May 13, 2016 21:31:06 GMT
They are dead cute when they're little. I haven't seen small snails for about 3 years now, mine are so big. Yours will grow quite big if you have a warm house and plenty of food, and you will definitely need a bigger tank than that before the year is out.
I've had fulicas before, and when they get mature it seems like every other month you're fishing eggs out of the tank. They're very fecund.
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Post by lorisarvendu on May 9, 2016 8:20:23 GMT
Well it's been over 2 weeks now, and absolutely no sign of hatching. The eggs are in a separate tank in a warm room with heat-mat and plenty of moisture, but not a sausage. Anyone else hatched tigers? Is this not unusual or have I got a bunch of sterile duds?
EDIT: After a lot of googling around it appears they can take anywhere from 2 to 6 weeks to hatch, so that's not so bad then.
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Post by lorisarvendu on Apr 29, 2016 11:08:34 GMT
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Post by lorisarvendu on Apr 29, 2016 11:05:10 GMT
April 2016. Proof positive that a 3 year old Tiger continues to grow. Compare the markings on Franklin's shell now to those in August last year. You can plainly see from the patterning that at least 2" of growth has been added. Of course this doesn't translate to 2" in shell length, but I'm sure a mathematical formula for the Archimedes spiral could be worked out!
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Post by lorisarvendu on Apr 23, 2016 9:25:34 GMT
Yes it is hard to gauge without either a hand or a ruler. I've just measured Franklin's shell and it's about 16cm/6.5 inches from rim to tip. Bonapart is about half an inch/2cm shorter. Incidentally Franklin weighs just under 700gm. 0.7 of a kilo!
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Post by lorisarvendu on Apr 22, 2016 23:15:36 GMT
Huge eggs! About 8mm long.
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Post by lorisarvendu on Apr 22, 2016 8:19:55 GMT
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Post by lorisarvendu on Apr 20, 2016 10:42:21 GMT
Would you be willing to post the babies to the South if I pay for the postage/packaging etc? Also love the names, gorgeous colours! Hi there. Yes I wouldn't have a problem with that. I've never posted snails before (though I've bought them from eBay) so if anyone reading this thread can give me advice I'd be grateful. I need to know what sort of age or size they can be posted, what kind of postage I should use, what kind of packaging etc. I'm guessing small tupperware pot with holes in, moist kitchen roll and some food. But beyond that I'm a bit in the dark and I don't want them arriving dead! When my fulicas laid, I took care of the "problem" in the usual way by freezing the eggs, but seeing as how much rarer Tigers are, I don't really want to do that, but I also don't want to end up with a hundred plus of them on my hands. Luckily Tigers seem to breed so rarely I'm not likely to be overrun if I do keep them. I'll keep posting updates and I'll certainly send you some. Drop me a PM so I can contact you when they're ready.
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Post by lorisarvendu on Apr 20, 2016 7:10:47 GMT
Well blow me down with a feather. I'd always thought Tiger snails breeding in captivity was pretty rare, but 3 and a half years after they arrive from eBay, Franklin & Bonaparte, have finally done the dirty. Here is Bonaparte flooding the corner of the tank with eggs. I really didn't expect this, so I'm going to have to bone up on how to take care of baby Tigers (if the eggs are even viable). Anyone in the Derbyshire area of the UK want a free baby Tiger snail? Shouldn't be a bad brood, as Franklin and Bony were bought separately and so aren't related.
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Post by lorisarvendu on Sept 30, 2015 9:34:39 GMT
Some more pix from the same session, August 2015. In answer to slimyrascal, cucumber and sweet potato!
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Post by lorisarvendu on Aug 7, 2015 15:52:42 GMT
Franklin, one of my two Tiger Snails, arrived in a tupperware box from eBay on the 21st September 2012, and looked like this: Here is Franklin now: They grow up so fast!
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