My Limax maximus have bred in captivity :)

[Kitana]

I've been keeping Limax maximus in a large exo terra tank with a natural background and moss for a few months now. I had a mix of English darker Limax and Swedish lighter Limax, I'd notice they have been a bit cannibalistic towards each other but I still had 2 adult English, 2 adult Swedish left. I was keeping them to see how long they would last in captivity and notice anything else about them as I have heard that they have been witnessed mating in captivity but nothing usually comes of it. I turn the lights off for a few hours at night and then go in to check to see all the slugs and snails that have come out, today I noticed these little baby Limax maximus over the sweet potato I'd put in there The floor is made from soil and garden moss so I've never noticed them before, or ever seen the eggs but I don't check the wild tank as I didn't expect anything of it. I can see around 10 on the potato but not sure exactly how many there are, pretty cute though!

Here's 3 of the babies







Here's some of the adults

Swedish Limax


English Limax


Enclosure I keep them in

[vickyholt13]

Lovely enclosure its really nice and thought out for you slugs. Interesting on the difference in markings on English and Swedish
Congrats on th elite babies too its exciting when I difficult species breeds

[Kitana]

Thank you, I wish I could say a lot of hard work has gone into it, but I've really done nothing at all lol it's aired a few rumors as well, I remember being told they needed at least 4ft to breed but my tank is at a maximum of 2ft. I'm in two minds about the babies, I've put 4 into a separate box and left the rest as they are but the only other person I know who has bred them said the adults eat most of the babies which I can believe as the adults eat each other lol I can either release the ones I find back into the forest or I can keep them to see if they will survive and hopefully in years to come breed again, maybe in time they will be easier to keep and breed in captivity as they are a cracking species to keep!

[vickyholt13]

It's interesting how different species are I love the uniqueness of animals. Maybe the four foot was suggested to limit contact so they might have less chance of eating one another but it certainly doesn't effect the breeding chances as yours have proved that. If you want to keep keeping the species I would keep some of the babies and if they don't get munched by the others maybe you could release some excess to your plans but from what you have said and think yourself some will prob get eaten. Your other option if your wanting release some would be to release the babies you find in the tank but then you would not see there chance of survival in captivity around there parents its a difficult decision to make because obviously you don't really want them to get eaten but as so little seems to be known in captivity all you are doing with your slugs is adding to evidence and support for others who choose to keep them its kind of an experiment/trial in some ways, I wish you all the luck and would be interested in hearing how they get on whatever decisions you make

[Kitana]

I've taken 5 babies and popped them into a tub, I'll have to make a replica of the adult tank using the same substrate and moss so not much is being changed for them, I could go and search for more babies or eggs, but I don't want to disturb the tank. I'll keep this thread updated with whatever information I can gather and pictures of progress I'm going to be at the Manchester pet show with a fair few of my invertebrates so at least I'll be able to display them along with the adults.

[muddydragon]

fantastic news! they are gorgeous (and i love the patterns your slugs leave in the sweet potato

Does adding more protein to their diet help reduce cannibalism at all or is it just one of those things?

[Kitana]

In my opinion based on my experiences, I think it's just a thing. I give them high protein foods along with raw meats and mice to mimic natural diet (including tree lichens and fungus) and I've still found eaten limax, I've put other slugs in there to see if they would eat them and they haven't, same for snails. I haven't found an eaten limax for a long time though after a few of the adults had been done away with. They always go for the foot end first though I have noticed that

[Kitana]

2 of the adult limax have now died (adult but not fully grown) 1 last week and died in an unknown place but the smell was a give away! And I've found one dead today. This seems to back up a point made that the adults soon die after reproducing. Both were the Swedish spottier type.

[Cashell]

Beautiful leopard slugs! Sorry to hear that two of your adults passed away.

[Kitana]

It is a shame, they're such a nice species to keep as well. All my hope is on these babies then

[muddydragon]

both being the swedish type is interesting, i wonder if they selectively choose types similar to themselves (i.e. from a similar area) ?

[Kitana]

It might be that there was more Swedish adults than English, and most of the English were eaten lol As far as I'm aware I have 2 adult English left and a few immature Swedes but I'll have a check tonight about 12am, I'm still finding babies but leaving them in there and adding some more lichen logs as they've eaten the lichen off the others. I'm getting some more Swedish ones soon so hopefully they don't mate lol well not until next year anyway.

[barnaclesnail]

Aug 17, 2013 23:24:07 GMT Kitana said:

I've put 4 into a separate box and left the rest as they are but the only other person I know who has bred them said the adults eat most of the babies which I can believe as the adults eat each other lol

Congrats on the babies! And good luck with them - I have heard they are a difficult species.

I don't keep Limax maxiums myself, but they are the species I have in my yard (the Swedish variety, I believe), and have actually seen very young babies - who don't even have their markings yet - cannibalize each other. They're supposedly only semi-carnivorous, but adults and babies seem to kill each other off at an alarming rate.

[Kitana]

It is alarming isn't it? I remember being told that they were only cannibalistic slightly if food source wasn't right but they ate their food and then each other, I would find some with small parts taken from their tail and then slowly all their pattering was eaten off and then I just stopped seeing them. Once it got down to about 5 Swedes and 2 English it all stopped

[Kitana]

Update on the limax, the 4 I kept in a tub separate soon died, no idea why but the remaining few babies in the tank continue to thrive to this day and have grown a lot. I still have 1 adult alive that never bred but will be receiving some new adults soon The 2 limax flavus I put in the tank for the limax to eat were left alone and also had babies lol

[barnaclesnail]

Glad to hear your limax babies are doing well Sorry about your four that died, though... its so frustrating when babies die off and we have no idea what, if anything, we are doing wrong. Wishing you continued good luck with them!

[Zorst]

Congrats on the babies, These are the slugs that i have in my pantry every night. I live in a 200+ yr old Irish farm house which is slowly being renovated. I have to do slug patrol every night and remove them back outside. If anyone would like some And the other variety that I am forever removing from my Pantry please let me know as the slug population here is very healthy and I'm putting both adults and babies outside. I even found slug eggs in the old redundant bathroom that's about to be stripped out and the wall re-pointed.

I'm happy to catch some and provide pictures if any body is interested. Just Pm me and let me know.

LOL! This makes my home n house keeping sound dire its not were just mid renovations and this is hopefully one of the jobs I wont have to keep doing when the new kitchen and pantry go in later this year and the stone walls have all been re-pointed.


Zorst