Greetings, snailers!

[Cross]

Hey there!

Im Daniel, from Hungary. I have been (and still) keeping various insect species, usually 2-3 at one time, but never tried snails out. Now Im an owner of my first 2 young Achatina fulica tanzania, Twist and Vortex   and I can say I really dont know why I didnt try these guys before! Since I keep invertebrates I was always interested in and investigated their behaviour as individuals. Some of them shown to be surprisingly clever, and able to learn. So Im just about to do so with snails! These 2 buddies I got are already shown differences in preferences of activity, food and eating method. Has anybody researched their capability of learning and stuff like that?

And whats the normal 'speed' of fulica growth? Their shell seem to grow 1mm/day. They almost grow faster than they actually move
Oh and a health question - is it possible for them to eat too much sepia? Once both of them had white feces.

[HazelSnail]

Welcome to the forum, and to snail keeping!

Snails definitely have a personality, and I have found that they do seem to be capable of small amounts of learning. There's a great thread somewhere on here about observed snail behaviors and snail owner's opinion on their intelligence. But other than that, I haven't been able to find much in the way of studies or papers written. The closest thing to a snail intelligence study that I have found was with the semi aquatic marsh periwinkle snail, and how they can tell the difference between the trail of a predatory snail (like a conch) and that of a harmless snail, like a mud snail. These snails also grow their own fungus, which shows some amount of intelligence.

I don't know anything about GALS unfortunately, as they're illegal here, but I'm sure someone else knows.

As for the white feces, many of my snails do that after they eat a lot of cuttlebone. It is possible for a snail to get too much calcium, but only if their food is mixed in with calcium. Otherwise, they know when they've had enough.

EDIT: here is a link to the thread I mentioned... petsnails.proboards.com/thread/10527/snails-clever 

[wolf]

Hi all,
there is a lot of investigations which dealt with the basic principles of learning, done with the marine snail Aplysia (see papers of E. Kandel, f.e.). Some aspects of the biochemical part of the story have been cleared, meanwhile (Nobel prize in 2000). Some molecules involved in the formation of memory seem to be the same in molluscs as in mammals. That´s pretty interesting........ .
Kind regards: wolf

[MaxPower]

Welcome I believe snails are far more intelligent than people give them credit for; they are related to the most intelligent invertebrate, the octopus, after all!

[crackle]

Hello Daniel, welcome to the forum!

[Cross]

Thank you people for the replies

Well, their food is well seperated so its up to them what they eat. However reading this intelligence stuff, especally that fungi growing one, thats beyond cool. And thanks for the link Hazel, will definitely read!