I have the dumbest slug ever!

[leila]

Hehe, yesterday I went out on a snail/slug finding expedition and came back with 3 young banana slugs and a tiny unidentified snail (will post pics wen i get them off my phone but theyre not great since I couldn't an sd card for our good camera)

Anyways so I get up this morning and go out on the porch to check on them, and the smallest banana slug has managed to get his head stuck in the mesh lid trying to escape...

after some poking and prodding he pulled his head back in but i thought i might have to cut him out... hes in a smaller tank now with the snail and i guess he will have to stay there for a while until he grows...

[axoloa]

haha thats amazing. I think your very lucky to have these beautiful creatures living so close to your home Looking forward to seeing your photoes Ususaly its not highly advisable to keep snails and slugs in the same enclosure as many slugs slime can be harmfull to other mollusk species. In this case however, it certainly sounds like the best solution as a temporary messure while the slug is still small How long are they by the way?

[leila]

ha yea i think i have another tank somewhere and ill clean it out and put one of them in there soon, the larger bananas are like maybe 4 and 3 inches and the stupid one is about 1.5, 2 when hes stretching and the little snails shell is maybe just over a centimeter... i think she might be an albino, but im not sure because shes so young

[axoloa]

Amazing have you ever came across an albino before?? your other tank does sound like a good idea definitly. Is it true that banana slugs produce a numming agent as a defense mecanism? I have heard that some people have actualy licked the poor things for fun XD Strange people in the world these days lol

[ness]

Aw bless! Glad he's been freed from the mesh. It's amazing what they can squeeze into - molluscs in general. I've found my GALS squeezing their heads into tiny gaps at times that their shells obviously would never get through....

[leila]

Yes they do have a numbing agent in their slime... and I have infact kissed a banana slug before, I guess here in the northwest its almost a sort of an initiation into being an outdoorsy type of person. I did it when I was about 7 in a nature camp... The slug didnt seem terribly harmed, maybe a bit confused but he'll be fine, and the instructor only let one person touch each slug to spare them any unnecessary stress, and when we found one that day my hand shot up like a rocket. They also make a great remedy for stinging nettle too... but my friends never let me put one on them.

And as for keeping them together, I do agree that its just a temporary fix, but I have kept the two together in the past with no problems, being wild caught they probably encounter each other in nature and my experience has been that they generally just keep to themselves.

[leila]

Oh, and about the albino snail... I've never seen one before, but I think she might be just a little pale since she is so small... grr my phone is being stupid but I will post pics asap so you can decide for yourselves

[coyote]

I have noticed that individual snails and slugs have different personalities, and some definitely seem dumber than others.

[leila]

Ha they definitely do, I think I'll name this one Darryl, my mom was watching "snapped" this morning and there was this "attorney" on there who was a complete idiot and he looked like he hadn't shaved, bathed or said anything intelligent in years... (he lost the case btw)

[axoloa]

Dec 18, 2011 22:50:54 GMT leila said:

Yes they do have a numbing agent in their slime... and I have infact kissed a banana slug before, I guess here in the northwest its almost a sort of an initiation into being an outdoorsy type of person. I did it when I was about 7 in a nature camp... The slug didnt seem terribly harmed, maybe a bit confused but he'll be fine, and the instructor only let one person touch each slug to spare them any unnecessary stress, and when we found one that day my hand shot up like a rocket. They also make a great remedy for stinging nettle too... but my friends never let me put one on them.

And as for keeping them together, I do agree that its just a temporary fix, but I have kept the two together in the past with no problems, being wild caught they probably encounter each other in nature and my experience has been that they generally just keep to themselves.

haha thats awsome. I have never been on a nature expodition or anything like that before. I guess England just dosent have the correct kind of wildlife to do so. English country side has a fair bit of wildlife but mainly birds and mamals. theirs not many typs of snails/slugs/insects native to england and theirs only a small number of different typs of amphibian to. theirs many different fresh water fish however but obviously with these being under water its hard to do a nature expo on fish as such lol. Your right about the slug and snails however, they probabaly do encounter each other allot in the wild and in all likelyhood are fine. I just know that many slugs slime are harmfull to other mollusk and I just know that I personaly would never mix them but I do know plenty of people who do and never seem to have any problems when doing so many slugs do eat the eggs of other mollusks though so you should be carfull in that case definitly (although I dont know spacificaly about a banana slugs diet). Good luck with your snail breeding and slug keeping

[axoloa]

Dec 19, 2011 0:35:22 GMT leila said:

Ha they definitely do, I think I'll name this one Darryl, my mom was watching "snapped" this morning and there was this "attorney" on there who was a complete idiot and he looked like he hadn't shaved, bathed or said anything intelligent in years... (he lost the case btw)

haha best not tell the slug your reasons for its name then JK

[leila]

well maybe one day take your camera and maybe a friend of two and go on your own nature expidition... and yea itll just be something i bring up at all his major milestone, graduation, his wedding and when his kids ask me what he was like as a kid

and btw i have separated him from Bernadette (the snail) but my setup right now is kinda wonky... i have the half gallon tank in the 20 gal and the 5 gal in the 10 gal since i only have one working heat pad and its super cold out... my mom is convinced we have another one in the garage so she wouldnt let me get two on my shopping trip that i just got back from

[leila]

ok i have my pics on my laptop now but i cant attach more than one file and i cant paste them in the textbox... help?

[axoloa]

Dec 19, 2011 5:05:06 GMT leila said:

well maybe one day take your camera and maybe a friend of two and go on your own nature expidition... and yea itll just be something i bring up at all his major milestone, graduation, his wedding and when his kids ask me what he was like as a kid

and btw i have separated him from Bernadette (the snail) but my setup right now is kinda wonky... i have the half gallon tank in the 20 gal and the 5 gal in the 10 gal since i only have one working heat pad and its super cold out... my mom is convinced we have another one in the garage so she wouldnt let me get two on my shopping trip that i just got back from

Well that works ;D lol. Is it necessary to have them on a heat pad though if their native wild caughts from where you live?? Are you doing that so they think its summer and remain active?? ;D

[axoloa]

Dec 19, 2011 5:21:51 GMT leila said:

ok i have my pics on my laptop now but i cant attach more than one file and i cant paste them in the textbox... help?

Hi leila, I think this is a common issue with many people when they are trying to upload their first pictures. To do this you need to be a member of a photo hosting site. PhotoBucket is probabaly the most common one, thats the one I use anyway photobucket.com/

You need to sign up for the free acount. You can sign up for premium if you want but that costs money. signing up is a simple process realy, it guides you all the way (like facebook, myspace, this forum).

after signing up its time to do your first uploads by simply clicking on the green upload button like so



You then need to click to select your files using either the mass uploader or by clicking the select photoes and videos option. You will then be taken directly to your picture files so you can select the ones you want to upload

After uploading your pictures you can click 'view album' to view your pictures. If you hover over a picture it reveils the 'Email & IM', 'Direct link', 'HTML code' and last but not least the 'IMG code'. You need to click on the 'IMG code' and it will instantly copy the code...



You can then Paste the code into your 'Post Reply' text box on the forum
wherever you want it to appear in your post (under text, over text, in the middle of texts... )



The code will appear as a picture after you have clicked on Post Reply ;D
hope this helps

[coyote]

I use Photobucket as well, it makes it easy because then you can post the pic anywhere.

[axoloa]

Dec 20, 2011 1:22:10 GMT coyote said:

I use Photobucket as well, it makes it easy because then you can post the pic anywhere.

It most certainly does I personaly havent even tried any of the other photo hosting sites, but photo has always done its job perfectly for me so I have stuck by it ;D

[leila]

Ok, I have figured all this out now, so here come the piccies!
(therye going from most recent to oldest)

Bernadette the first time I held her:



The (unnamed) larger banana slug, theres something weird about the back part of his body



The star of the post, Darryl with his head stuck in the lid



Bernadette hangin out on the tank lid while I set things up



The bigger bananas



The non-spotted bananas and Bernadette on a mossy rock



Phineas checking out a log



Woohoo he made it across the gap!



When hes not being shy, hes pretty photogenic



Snail on a log... nuff said





Slugs





Little baby slug I found (left him there tho he was too small fo rme to keep track of)




Bernadette in her shell:



The other banana slug (name ideas would be appreciated)







If anyone knows for sure what subspecies of glass snail Bernadette is, I'd love to know because all my research is just making them all look more and more similar. I dont think she is a garlic snail because I startled her but didnt smell anything... i have a bit of a cold tho so my sense of smell is not exactly reliable.

[coyote]

I never smelled any smell from my garlic snails, so that's not a definitive way to ID them.

Do you have a macro setting on your camera? That will help with getting good focus on close-up subjects.

[axoloa]

I have never smelled garlic with mine either then again I have never had them that close to my nose lol

Your snail definitly looks like a garlic snail from the pictures mainly because of its blue tinted flesh.

The slugs are cool. I realy am jelouse now ;D

[leila]

@ coyote, yea i do have like an actual camera (i assume it has a macro setting) but the sun was starting to go down and i couldnt find an sd card for it and my dad started screaming at me when i asked if i could borrow his (he is super ocd with his electronics) so i just used my phone's camera... so i will definately attempt to get better pics next time

@ axoloa, i think that thats probably what it is simply by looking at the general distribution of them being more in my area, but it does seem that the entire Oxychilus species are all relatively blue in color, but there are very subtle differences.

[pinkunicorn]

Banana slugs are so cool. I'm really jealous, too! I want some...

And lol, what a silly slug... Glad he got out unharmed though. The piccy is very funny.

[saki114]

i love banana slugs they look so... well, BRIGHT! lol