Bandito the Pacific Sideband snail

[Ally&Akasha]

We have a Pacific Sideband snail (Monadenia fidelis). "His" name is Bandito. We know the do not have gender but still call him male for convenience. We've had him since April 2016 and no other snails and he's a mature specimen with 7 rings to his spiral. He's laid clutches of eggs several time but they have always dried up and that was that. Well the most recent clutch hatched in late July/early August. And we know have nearly 40 baby snails. Unless they can hold on to spirm from a love dart for an excessively long time our snail darted itself and this is a confirmed case of self insemination for Monadenia fidelis.

Bandito LOVES carrots and will ignore almost all other veggies if carrot is available. Lettuce gets some attention too but that's about it. We give him baked and ground egg shell for calcium which he loves and occasionally mix in a little spirulina algie supplement for vitamins and micronutrients.

We'll post pix in a week or so.

Nice to find fellow snail lovers,

Akasha and Ally.

[astana]

Hello, welcome to the forums!
Actually, I have a Pacific Sideband snail too! I acquired 'her' recently and she seems quite old For me, she really likes sweet potato, organic mushrooms, and bell peppers... maybe I should try giving her carrots sometime!

[Cashell]

Welcome!

Snails are hermaphrodites so they're neither female or male, but a lot of owners will still refer to their snails as "he" or "she" depending on the name they give to them. Also, if you don't mind me asking, which State or Province was this snail found in? Don't need need to provide exact locations or anything like that, but just want to have a rough idea.

[Ally&Akasha]

Astana: I believe I saw your picture post. Bandito does not like bell pepper which surprised me. And even given chantarelle mushrooms which are native to where he was found he he only barely nibbles at them regular button mushrooms or Portobellos he flat out ignores. Lettuce and zucchini, a little moss now and then are the only other things we've really seen him show much interest in. But carrots he friggin devours with mucho gusto! We are going to see what happens if we try to feed the babies mostly purple foods, purple carrots, purple cabbage, purple yams/sweet potato, purple bell peppers if we can find them. It's said their adult color is in part controlled by their diet. So will this result in purple snail? XD

Cashell: We know most snails are hermaphrodites, it's why I put he in quotations. We've only been able to find reports of a few cases of confirmed snail self propagation though and none of the were for M. Fidelis. I believe they were all for Lissachatina fulica, the giant African snail. So as far as I know this is a first to be reported. Bandito was found just a few miles inland of the Trinidad Head in Humboldt County, California. He's the dark reddish orange of the redwood snail, as they are known locally there.

[wolf]

Hi all,
several snail species can do self-fertilization [Lymnaea stagnalis, Arianta arbustorum, Lissachatina fulica and so on, see f.e. Xiaofeng Chen (1994): Self-fertilization and cross-fertilization in the land snail Arianta arbustorum (Mollusca, Pulmonata: Helicidae) - Journal of Zoology 232 (3) 465-471]. Cornu aspersum (= Helix aspersa) is said to be capable of self-fertilization, but I don't have a paper here to confirm this thesis. In all cases of self-fertilization only a small number of eggs develop. In Arianta arbustorum, self-fertilization occurs mostly in the second and third year after maturation. In Lissachatina fulica self-fertilization does occur, but there are fewer than ten eggs and most of these eggs are sterile. The progeny rarely survive through to sexual maturity (Olson, 1973).
Kind regards: wolf
 

[Ally&Akasha]

Thanks for the information, Wolf.

[Cashell]

Sept 22, 2017 2:09:17 GMT Ally&Akasha said:

Astana: I believe I saw your picture post. Bandito does not like bell pepper which surprised me. And even given chantarelle mushrooms which are native to where he was found he he only barely nibbles at them regular button mushrooms or Portobellos he flat out ignores. Lettuce and zucchini, a little moss now and then are the only other things we've really seen him show much interest in. But carrots he friggin devours with mucho gusto! We are going to see what happens if we try to feed the babies mostly purple foods, purple carrots, purple cabbage, purple yams/sweet potato, purple bell peppers if we can find them. It's said their adult color is in part controlled by their diet. So will this result in purple snail? XD

Cashell: We know most snails are hermaphrodites, it's why I put he in quotations. We've only been able to find reports of a few cases of confirmed snail self propagation though and none of the were for M. Fidelis. I believe they were all for Lissachatina fulica, the giant African snail. So as far as I know this is a first to be reported. Bandito was found just a few miles inland of the Trinidad Head in Humboldt County, California. He's the dark reddish orange of the redwood snail, as they are known locally there.

My apologies for overlooking the quotations and assuming you didn't know. Thanks for letting me know the location. Was hoping it would be a British Columbian location, but it's still cool to learn about American sightings as well.

[Ally&Akasha]

Picture thread can be found here:

petsnails.proboards.com/thread/16756/bandetto-infidelis

[~|Smol Bean|~]

Hi! Welcome to the forums. I just recently joined, too. I find Monadenia Fidelis such interesting little snails. I have been wanting one since I joined this site. Im currently waiting for 2 Brown-lipped snails Just wondering- since I really want a pacific sideband, do you know anyone who sells them? Thank you. Welcome to the forums!