Something white coming out of airhole

[cherrychops]

Hello all,

I'm new to this forum, have read the rules on posting and *think* I'm doing this right so here goes...

My son has had Torquil for just over a year now, we think he's East African, not too sure of types of African Snail though.

We have just woken him up after 3 days of inactivity-we think this has been due to a lack of water as we realised today that he's been tipping his water tray up to bury underneath. He's just started doing this when previously he was hiding elsewhere.

Anyway, all is fine now and Torquil is currently eating his way through his favourite type of leaf but we've noticed there is something white coming out of one of his air holes. It seem to be soft, kind of pasty and the area around the hole appears to be ever so slightly swollen.

Is this anything to worry about or is normal and to be expected after being sealed up for a short amount of time, a kind of clearing out of the lungs?

Jacqui

[Robert Nordsieck]

Hi Jacqui,

snails only have one air hole ore breathing hole, which is located in that part of the body hidden in the shell, so you can see it in the shell mouth.

What I think you mean is on opening near the snail's head? When there is something white coming from that opening (right hand side, frontal end of the body), then the snail is looking for a mating partner and its genital organs are already showing.

What is also possible, if it really is near the breathing hole, that the snail is urinating. Snails don't do that by losing a liquid, but snail urine is a whitish or brownish paste. That would be near the shell mouth.

So to speak, after the long sleep, the snail desperately had to go for a leak

Kind regards
Robert

[coyote]

Hi cherrychops, welcome to the forum. The first thing I thought from your description was the genital organs of the snail emerging. It is a normal occurrence and nothing needs to be done about it. A pic would be helpful to figure out what's actually going on, as well as to help identify your snail species for you.

[cherrychops]

Hello,

Many thanks for the replies, it is near the head and on the right hand side, I honestly thought that was the air hole and thought that sexual organs would (logically) appear from the underneath!

I really should have asked my son, who would have known that, but didn't want to worry him incase there was something wrong with the lovely Torquil as he would have been so upset.

Although the question now though is how come he's not done this before and does he NEED company-do snails get lonely?

Jacqui

[Robert Nordsieck]

Hi there,

apparently he does. I am not quite certain that snails have a concept of loneliness, but snails do like company (depending which species of course). But many snails kept in a terrarium stay together even if there is more place available.

On one hand, the only suitable company would be a snail of the same species, but on the other hand you would have to get rid of the eggs by freezing them, as you cannot put them into the garbage and well, what to do with the young snails?

Lastly: Here is a page about the body construction of snails, which you might find interesting. There may also be some pages on the base homepage of this forum.

www.molluscs.at/gastropoda/morphology.html

Kind regards
Robert

[Amy]

I just read through this and found it very intresting as mine to do this and i didnt really know what was going on but now i have some sort of idea

[Robert Nordsieck]

Course this is about European snails, so some thing may be different in Achatinas, but basically, all being snails, thing should be comparable.

Glad I could help.

Cheers
Robert