Help for dimi owners

[KathyM]

sezzy5889 said:

I have just seen your other thread and i think For Justin the answers have come a little late, he looks extremely thin, it's the worst case i have ever seen, and i don't think hes going to come back either, sorry :-(

It didn't come too late - "the answer" hasn't come at all for anyone yet on this severe retraction.

Obviously the sure fire cure you're plugging isn't "the answer". Please bear in mind he has looked this way for some time now, despite extra heat and moisture (as I've told you on numerous occasions).

So for everyone out there - heat and moisture may liven them up a bit, it certainly brought Justin out of his shell today (whether that's a good thing goes without saying considering the state he's in), but all it does is wake them up. If they're well enough to feed, then they might just pull through, but it sure as hell isn't cold and dry tanks that are killing these dimis, and I'll be buggered if I'll sit back and watch Sarah say it YET again.

Heat and moisture is NOT a cure for retraction in dimis, it's an idea, a theory, at best an aid, but not a sure fire cure for all poorly dimis as advertised on this thread.

It's very risky Sarah telling people that "the answer" for all dimis is heat and moisture, because just because it helped in your case does not make it a cure all for everyone's snails. There is obviously something far bigger at work with these snails than can be cured with miracle tanks and heat and water.

Of course I'm not saying heat and moisture don't help - I would imagine keeping them dry and cold would certainly be a bad idea *lol*, but Sarah can't say it's the answer for poorly dimis because she just doesn't know, and as far as I can tell, noone does know "the answer" yet.

Good luck everyone who has these dimis.

[sezzy5889]

i'm not saying it's THE answer, but it is A answer, and i'm not saying it's curing the retraction problem in fact i'm not even talking about the retraction problem, i am refering to the growth problem, and heat and moisture seems to have helped in even the worse cases (of growth problems)

i know you are getting quite annoyed with reading my posts and they do sound as if i am repeating myself, but people keep repeating their problems over and over so i just repeat my opinion over and over, i not doing it to annoy anyone :-)

[KathyM]

I'm not annoyed at all I'm just pointing out that despite heat and moisture, my snail isn't getting better, so it's obviously not "the secret". I just want to protect anyone else from the assumption that those of us who have poorly dimis aren't caring for them well enough, or from assuming that upping the heat and moisture is all that's needed. This thread was beginning to go that way

PS: Sorry if you think me posting my first update on Justin in weeks is "posting over and over". I don't do it to irritate you (better things to do sweetheart ), but to help people for whom the "give them heat and moisture" slap happy theory isn't working.

[Paul]

I think the heat/humidity thing is a must for people with the problem. It won't cure anything in itself, unless your snails are being kept cold and dry, but it raises the metabolism and it helped me to help two out. It was the snails getting their strength back by eating that helped as I knew it always was gonna be, but the heat and humidity just seemed to get them active long enough for the food to tempt them. It hasn't worked for all snails by any means, but so far it is the only thing I have seen that might help at all, so its the first thing I'd do now.

[LisaLQ]

sezzy5889 said:

i know you are getting quite annoyed with reading my posts and they do sound as if i am repeating myself, but people keep repeating their problems over and over so i just repeat my opinion over and over, i not doing it to annoy anyone :-)

The heat and humidity theory does help, in my case a lot, but it's not a cure all. In some cases it wont work. I have two dimis - one of which is still only 2cm, despite coming to us in Sept. All the heat and humidity in the world hasn't made them grow at the rate they're supposed to (to almost quote Paul - at normal rate compared to a fulica). Considering my fulica the same age is knocking on 9cm now, and Gary - my biggest dimi - is only 4cm or so, then there's definitely a problem. Now, I agree it helps in many cases to keep them alive, and if you're really lucky - some minor growth, before I get an earful. But I dont think your success should be suggested as the norm, either. It is more likely, that your conditions/feeding/care/tankmates etc helped boost an otherwise healthy snail. I dont know if yours were retracted, I dont know if they were vastly undersized, all I know is that your immacs started growing when they went into a different tank. It could be anything, maybe more space, maybe less pests, maybe better company.

My problem isn't with the advice, it's the snidey comments that come along with it on many threads. And not just from you to be fair. The original post that you made to say "well if Lisa wont post I will". It didn't need saying - you didn't have to start off with that in the post, intended to p*ss someone off. If I had the answers, I'd post them. I dont yet, and while heat and humidity is a help - it's been said a zillion times, by other people, on other threads. So it isn't anything new that needed saying. And until I find success, I'll hold my thoughts.

As for things working in the worst cases, have you seen a case worse than Justin? Because it's not working for him. And she tried heat and humidity way before you posted your "secrets". How can you say it works in the worst cases, when you dont have any experience with that? Yours are all healthy!

The straw that broke my back was you insinuating that you couldn't save Justin with your cure, because your advice came too late - that Kathy hadn't even tried to up the heat and humidity.

As for this thread only being about growth, perhaps you could have been more specific in your original post, when you said "advice for dimi owners". The slow growth rate seems to go hand in hand with the retraction in many cases, some pull round, some dont.

And if it's going to be a discussion on dimis and ideas to try - why cant Kathy post to say it's not worked for her? You need both sides of the story to make an informed decision.

Sorry for the rant, I'm just really sick of this now, and wish I'd never posted about mine. And I wouldn't have said it on the thread, if I didn't know I'd get no answer in a complaint to the mods.

[Arno]

To be honest I never received any complaints from you(that is if you've send it to me in the first place).

[LisaLQ]

It wasn't me who sent it, and it wasn't to you. The reason I've not complained, is because of that lack of response.

[KathyM]

sezzy5889 said:

I thought it may be a good idea to state about how I improved my dimi’s living considering they weren’t doing all that well at one stage. And anyone else having success with raising dimi’s can add their story to this thread

Sorry I do now see where you excluded me from this thread. However, it's a bit strange to try and get a full picture of what works without seeing posts made by those who the "secrets" haven't worked for. And nowhere in your post do you say that you don't mean retraction, which does seem to go hand in hand with the growth issue (in the extreme, they're shrinking!).

I still believe your success lies more in what else was going on at the time - you say they recovered after being put on the matting, wasn't that when you were struggling with parasites? I believe so.

So basically your snails weren't thriving until they were cleansed of parasites and given a boost with the heat and humidity. Still a good tactic, but not a cure.

Well done for getting rid of the nasty critters - I hope I never have them here.

[LisaLQ]

I'm saying this publicly (sp?) because I was out of order to the mods and want to apologise. I'm very sorry to the mods for what I said/suggested on my posts, it wasn't fair to vent at you - just I was so angry and upset I exploded and you ended up getting some of that frustration, and I shouldn't have done that.

So I'm very sorry mods *cringes and slinks off to the naughty corner*

[Kevin]

pandatazz said:

The ones I got from Virginia Cheeseman were sub-adults when I got them over a year ago (I cant remember exactly how long ago it was, It was the first time V.cheeseman had offered them, they were about 7cm when i got them, they are now around 9cm and are fully grown (I assume, since they havent got larger in the last year or so)

One of my adult dimidiata has died ...I dont know why, the other dimidiata, and the fulica that share the same tank seem active and fine.

[Deleted]

awww no was it one of those big ones u got ages ago? maybe it was old?

[Kevin]

lotsofsnails said:

awww no was it one of those big ones u got ages ago? maybe it was old?

Yeah, one of the adults...I was thinking it may have been old as well, Im not even sure whether they were captive bred or wild caught, I never saw them for sale anywhere before Virginia Cheeseman first offered them,

[LisaLQ]

Sorry to hear that Kevin

[sezzy5889]

The original post that you made to say "well if Lisa won't post i will".

I didn't write those exact words, i put because 'since someone else didn’t want to participate I have set this thread up myself' i didn't mention any names or anything, and the reason i posted that comment in the first place is because i was very worked up at the comment you made in your post that read...

Ps. The thread I posted was deleted at my request. It went totally off topic in the first reply, which was a deliberate attempt to p*ss me off.

thats the only reason, nothing terrible...

[LisaLQ]

Why have you left it 4 days and then started it all up again? I didn't tell any lies, it was a deliberate attempt, but to be honest, this is old news now, and why you're attempting to revive it I dont know.

[sezzy5889]

no actually i just haven't seen this post, i don't want to carry this on just as much as you do, so we can leave it here.

[KathyM]

I'm so sorry Kevin

Justin still hasn't come out, so we're helping him on his way today. If I can bottle up the courage to do it.