water dish

[kb.trekkie]

I keep a baby food lid full of water in my snails habitat, but do not spray the inside of the tank. I have been doing this for several months now, and the snails just drink out of the water dish and crawl in the water.  But I've heard you are supposed to supply both. I don't really want to encourage them to breed and lay eggs, as it is cold now and my only possible way of controlling population is to destroy the eggs (which I simply can't bring myself to do.) Is what I'm doing okay?

[greyphoenix]

Your snails are aspersas, so they'll probably survive fine that way. However, it probably won't keep them from breeding, and they would be happier with misting at least once a day. I understand not wanting to destroy eggs, but is freezing some eggs (a painless way of population control, which happens naturally in not so so nice ways in the wild) better than intentionally keeping your snails unhappy so that they won't breed? I'd rather keep my snails happy and practice responsible population control. That said, if it makes you feel better, you could put the eggs to good use by feeding them to fish, frogs, or other animals that enjoy them (or give them to friends who would like to do so). Also, I think you said you got your aspersas in the wild, so you could also release the babies or replant the eggs outside. Just don't do it near anyone's crops or garden!

[kb.trekkie]

Thanks for your help!

[greyphoenix]

No problem!

[morningcoffee]

Nov 27, 2013 23:39:32 GMT greyphoenix said:

Your snails are aspersas, so they'll probably survive fine that way. However, it probably won't keep them from breeding, and they would be happier with misting at least once a day. I understand not wanting to destroy eggs, but is freezing some eggs (a painless way of population control, which happens naturally in not so so nice ways in the wild) better than intentionally keeping your snails unhappy so that they won't breed? I'd rather keep my snails happy and practice responsible population control. That said, if it makes you feel better, you could put the eggs to good use by feeding them to fish, frogs, or other animals that enjoy them (or give them to friends who would like to do so). Also, I think you said you got your aspersas in the wild, so you could also release the babies or replant the eggs outside. Just don't do it near anyone's crops or garden!

The snails aren't aspersas. Malacophile helpfully identified them as Patera appressa.
However they are apparently native to kbanimallover's area, as she found them outside, so there's nothing wrong with releasing any babies or putting eggs outside if freezing the eggs isn't an option

[greyphoenix]

Ahh, okay. I'd seen them called plain garden snails, saw pics of baby snails with brown shells, and assumed they were aspersas. Isn't that what's usually meant by the "common garden snail?" Good to know they're native to her area at least! :-)

[morningcoffee]

Nov 28, 2013 9:38:47 GMT greyphoenix said:

Ahh, okay. I'd seen them called plain garden snails, saw pics of baby snails with brown shells, and assumed they were aspersas. Isn't that what's usually meant by the "common garden snail?" Good to know they're native to her area at least! :-)

Yes, "common garden snails" often means Helix aspersa, but people will often refer to snails they've found outside as "garden snails" if they aren't sure of the species - just meaning that they came from the garden
Helix aspersa are often called "brown garden snails" too - again, confusing as many other garden snails are brown!

Baby aspersa look very different to the babies kbanimallover has - the snails are more rounded, light brown and usually with a "spotty" pattern. When they are very tiny, the shells are almost see-through. They are really, really cute babies
I searched Google for "baby helix aspersa" to show you some pictures and strangely some of my own photos appeared as a result!


Here's a very small baby aspersa on a leaf:




And here's another baby aspersa on my finger:




As you can see, they are very tiny and adorable, but very different to the babies kbanimallover has


Anyway, to get back to the original topic and not just cute baby snail pictures
Greyphoenix is right, simply not spraying the tank isn't going to prevent the snails from breeding and laying eggs. Snails that have been brought in from outside or are wild-caught seem to really enjoy having their tank sprayed, as they are used to coming out to explore and look for food when it rains in the wild, so it's nice to mimic those conditions for them by spraying the tank a little Moisture is good for them to keep their bodies nice and damp, so it's nice to add a little humidity to their tank. You shouldn't spray too much, however - a few squirts of a misting bottle around the tank is enough each day, otherwise you could make the tank and the substrate too wet.
If you don't have a spray bottle that can "mist" water in a fine spray, you can usually get them in garden centres, or sometimes places like home stores (if they have a garden/plants section) or even dollar stores / pound shops.
You could try putting them on a thin layer of substrate (about an inch or slightly less) so that they can't dig down deep - this is unlikely to prevent them from breeding and laying, but it might make the eggs easier to find.

[kb.trekkie]

Thanks guys! I have been spraying their home twice a day, and they seem to love it! I think at this point I would actually like them to lay eggs. But a quick question first. Will I have a population explosion if I keep the babies until March or April?

[crucify]

It's freezing cold outside and my aspersas are laying eggs, the others probably would be too if I could get them out of hibernation. As long as your snails are awake and happy they're probably not going to stop laying continuously.

[tsrebel]

I don't know this specie, but most smaller snails lay ca 20-50 eggs each time. They would probably not lay eggs more than once a month. It is also likely that not all eggs will hatch and some young will die. That is only natural. I'm not sure how many adults you have, but let's say that each of them produce 20 surviving young each month. That would make 80 young snails. The number will most likely be lower, but a little explosion - yes. These are quite small snails, so they don't need a lot of space. I don't know how fast they grow, but they will not grow as fast as African snails. I don't think it would be a problem, really. And if it becomes a problem you could always remove any new eggs.

[greyphoenix]

It would definitely cause an explosion in population if you were to always keep all the eggs. Unless you want to end up with hundreds of snails, you'll need to be careful how many you allow to hatch. Personally, I plan to keep one egg, and if for some reason it doesn't hatch, I'll keep one from the next batch. Once I have the maximum number of snails I can realistically care for and enjoy, all eggs will be frozen and/or used as fish food. In my mind, that's more responsible than suddenly increasing your number of snails by 20 or more, only to find it's more burden than you want, especially if it's a common species you are unlikely to find other homes for. Remember, your snails will keep laying eggs as long as they're happy, so you can always hatch more snails in the future.

[Deleted]

I to would like my snails to breed , I have 7 Achatina Fulicas but the UK weather is a bit to cool at the moment for them to breed. I'm hoping in the new year which is in about 26 days time, scary thought :-¤ I know but anyway in the new year when the weather warms up I'm hoping that they will in time breed , I have 7 ( soon could be 9) A,F,s so it stands a good chance. Obviously I can't keep all the eggs because apparently they can lay up to about 100 eggs ( so I'm told) so the planis to keep 10 so that I can watch the babys grow into adorable snails and with the rest I'll ask around, maybe put them on preloved and if all else fails freeze the unwanted eggs overnight in the freezer. But back to your question, be patient and let nature take her sweet time. Good luck.

[etana]

All right, I'm replying here because the original subject is water dish.

I've read from a few sources that GALS must have a water dish in the tank, whereas smaller snails get well enough water from misting and watery foods such as cucumber. What is your experience, would you keep a water dish in, for example, a Cepaea tank?

I put a very shallow one (some kind of pasta sauce can lid) in with my Cepaeas & Ariantas yesterday because the weather's been super hot, and they definitely drink from it and seem to bathe, too. It was only yesterday thouhh so I appreciate any thoughts on this

[Zorst]

I have water dishes in all my tanks for all the snails here. I tend to refill them every other day as that's when it seems to be needed. They are also misted daily which they all enjoy.

Most of the bowls I use are Scallop shells as they are in plentiful supply around here and free. I just boil the shells to remove any salt etc. The snails also rasp the shells as they do the cuttle fish because its calcium. The only water bowl that isn't a shell is the Tiger snails one because they just use their pool so much and it needs to be bigger due to their size, so they have a plastic bowl that once had some pate in it. Hey it works and Shelida loves laying in his pool watching everyone else lol.

Zorst

[etana]

All right, with what you said Zorst and with what I've seen in my tank by now, I'll definitely keep the water dish in with the little ones (C's and A's). Just last night before I went to bed, I saw a big Arianta bathing in there! I usually don't see it, I only find the water has pieces of moss in it, which means someone's dragged it there.

Hmm. I wish I could find shells easily, I suppose they make for much nicer decoration than can lids, too.

Oh, um, just came to mind...there's a jewellery store here that sells Scallop shells for fairly cheap. I must ask if there are chemicals put in them. If not, I might buy some. Yay!

[slimyrascal]

My Cepea like their water dish, they seem to like to soak it in, then hang above it on a branch.

[mangoandlemon]

My zachrysia love they're dish, a reptile bowel that is 1 inch deep. They drink from it and sometimes go underwater with just they're eyes poking out.

[MaSlugBoi]

I feel obligated to say that they can drown in water dishes and I assume they can if their pneumostomes are covered up by water. So if their little breathing hole that's normally just out of sight at the base of the shell is covered by water, you might have a little too much water. If I'm wrong, somebody correct me. I don't like misinformation.

[MelanieChaos]

Dec 14, 2017 9:07:15 GMT MaSlugBoi said:

I feel obligated to say that they can drown in water dishes and I assume they can if their pneumostomes are covered up by water. So if their little breathing hole that's normally just out of sight at the base of the shell is covered by water, you might have a little too much water. If I'm wrong, somebody correct me. I don't like misinformation.

I was also under this impression... I was told misting them once in the morning and once at night would be sufficient (I have three helix aspersus). I have had my snails about two months now with no water bowl, as I was told they would be likely to drown in it. They seem happy, and recently laid eggs. Perhaps a shallow, 1/8 inch dish would suffice? 

[blackscorpion]

I used to mist them twice a day, but now I have a hygrometer and I mist when the humidity goed under 80%. Sometimes that still means twice a day, sometimes not even once a day. But I do have a very shallow dish (a small lid) with water in the terrarium. It is very shallow, my snails can't drown in it. One time I saw one of my Helix aspersa sitting in it, just bathing himself, haha. But really, it is so shallow it is like 1 mm of water. But I think this keeps the humidity up.

[MelanieChaos]

Maybe I should get a hygrometer. I have a thermometer in there now but could always improve