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Post by endlesstuesday on Sept 29, 2015 17:39:52 GMT
This is my first time posting on a forum so excuse any mistakes or such.
My Achatina fulica pair had eggs a few weeks ago, I kept six back to watch them hatch and disposed of the rest by freezing them as the care guide suggested. While cleaning the tank today I uncovered the eggs to check on them and accidentally knocked one, the egg shell was already cracked and knocking it opened it fully, I now have a very tiny baby snail in my hand and I don't know what to do. Did I accidentally hatch the egg?
Its not moving but appears alive (there is a mass inside the yellow shell) and I've no idea what to do, none of the others look even close to hatching and I'm unsure if this one will survive because there is no shell left to eat and it's extremely small, smaller than my research said it'd be.
Any help would be much appreciated I wasn't prepared for it to hatch so soon and have yet to get a separate tank for the babies (I have two large tanks for each of the adults so I'll probably be able to manage). I'm a first time owner and this is my first hatched baby, I don't want it to die.
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Cashell
Archachatina puylaerti
Posts: 1,124
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Post by Cashell on Sept 29, 2015 19:25:51 GMT
You probably don't want to hear this, but it doesn't sound like the odds of it surviving will be high... I could be wrong though. Keep an eye on it and monitor it daily to see if it grows or improves.
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Post by etana on Sept 29, 2015 19:35:37 GMT
Did the baby snail actually eat the eggshell?
They're very fragile at first, before their little shells harden up, and thus don't really move on their first day or so. I guess all you can do is keep the baby safe and moist, and offer a little bit of food (like super thinly cut sweet potato and a piece of poop from their Mommy snail) and calcium.
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Post by endlesstuesday on Sept 29, 2015 19:51:10 GMT
I've separated it from the others and am going too keep an eye on it but I think you might be right Cashell, it's extremely small at the moment.
And no it didn't eat the shell, it crumbled before I could keep any back, I'll be sure to give it a little food and I have some calcium power I can put on the poop to hopefully make up for the lack of shell. Thank you for the advice Etana, I'm feeling like a rather terrible owner at the minute so I want to do all I can for the little one.
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Post by muddydragon on Sept 29, 2015 20:16:03 GMT
baby fulica can be very tiny it might be OK. Just try not to handle it and dont be suprised if it spends several days under the substrate (baby snails often do). Also put in some poo from the parents too for it to eat and old substrate from the parents' tank for the benificial bacteria.
Can i just check, do you normally keep the adults separate? (you mentioned having a tank each for each one?). There's no need to keep them separate they much prefer company to being alone.
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Post by endlesstuesday on Sept 29, 2015 20:22:29 GMT
Okay, thank you, I've put poo beside it and it's in its mothers tank at the moment without the adults so fingers crossed. It's also got a yellow shell? Not entirely sure if that's normal for baby Achatinas I can't see to find an image that's close enough to its colour.
And yes I do keep them separate, to avoid mating as much as possible, but they spend a lot of time together when I handle them and haven't displayed any of the signs of being lonely, they are both active, eat well etc. and didn't spend much time together when they were in the same tank really, they slept as far from eacother as they could and were rarely awake at the same time.
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Post by endlesstuesday on Oct 3, 2015 18:32:12 GMT
Okay, well it's been a few days and he seems to be doing fine, he buried himself back into the mud and I've lightly covered him back over. Two more babies have hatched and are also still underground eating their shells - I believe he has eaten some too - I put some thin cucumber in as well in case they get hungry but so far so good I think, they have gone back to acting how they should and he's the right size compared to the others so there are no more worries there, I can't thank you all enough for your help <3
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mangoandlemon
Achatina tincta
Animals are not a choice for me. They are a lifestyle!
Posts: 671 
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Post by mangoandlemon on Oct 4, 2015 17:25:53 GMT
Glad he is doing well!
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horrr0r
Achatina achatina
Posts: 75
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Post by horrr0r on Dec 12, 2015 7:43:07 GMT
Well if it was cracked enough that just bumping it opened it up he probably was trying to hatch himself. In my clutch I had many eggs that were just starting to hatch and I got over excited and "helped them" out of their shells (took the shells off for them). I know it's not a good idea. But I couldn't think past the excitement at the time. They all or almost all survived it. If none of the others hatch in the next 48 hours then he is probably dead and probably would have been whether u touched him or not. I had a clutch that I didn't even know was there until I found a tiny dead hatchling in the adults tank. Then I found all the eggs and in the "tunnel" to the eggs there was one hatched eggshell. Clearly it had belonged to that hatchling I found. The other eggs were nowhere near ready. I even sacrificed a couple to Crack open and they were all still liquid with a tiny white yolk spot! So I have no clue how that one had a hard shell! There was no body in it though. So I guess it can happen that one egg is leaps and bounds ahead of the rest of the litter but doesn't survive... normal. Either way, just keep it and see. Keep it separate from any live snails and separate from the other eggs unless they are well buried and u keep an eye on if he moves. I didn't have an issue with predation, almost to the other eggs, once they realized that there was a life snail in there they moved on or tried to help the siblings come out of the eggshell. When they were mostly hatched, they just all ate any eggs pieces, there's NO way to know who's is whos. So I put the hatched ones in a small Tupperware container with brand new coir, made a line like a ditch with my fingertip and in the line I placed a hatched baby, then some eggshell, then repeated like a pattern. It worked great, I had no deaths at that stage. I had many that didn't hatch after a week and I thought they were duds so i threw them outside (fulica snails are wild where I live) and lo and behold they all hatched later and survived!
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horrr0r
Achatina achatina
Posts: 75
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Post by horrr0r on Dec 12, 2015 7:43:37 GMT
I apologize for the long and unorganized comment. I have OCD and it makes me go on and on and on lol so sorry!
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Post by endlesstuesday on Jan 20, 2016 20:06:36 GMT
Thank you for the response, horrr0r, and apologies for the very late response unfortunately that little one didn't make it, he just didn't grow and then died but all the rest survived and have all been rehomed. A friend of mine has two and the other three have been given to a pet store as I couldn't keep them so five out of six isn't bad for my first batch, hopefully if they breed again I'll be able to keep one or two.
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