annatrash
Archachatina marginata
Watching my decollates munch on some hamburger meat :)
Posts: 24
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Post by annatrash on Jun 19, 2020 4:28:53 GMT
Literally everything is perfect for them. They're in a planted tank, with almost 3 inches of soil, the perfect texture substrate, and the temp is always between 70 and 80 degrees except at night where I turn off the heater to emulate the outside world, where it still ends up being a little over 70 (looks about 74right now) and I give them all kinds of food- sweet potato, beets, tomato, carrot, egg, lettuce and cucumber, and a little watermelon or grape once in a while, and yet, these guys are still sleeping.
I haven't checked but I'm sure they're in aestivation considering the only one I've seen up in 2 weeks is the baby and the food is hardly touched at all in the morning. I don't like waking them up because it takes a lot of energy out of them and they tend to go right back to sleep. I just wanna improve their conditions so they get up by themselves :/ The only time they did was when I took them all out of the terrarium outside and put them in a cup so I could change the substrate to get rid of the fungus fly infestation. Literally everyone got up once they got outside. Idk if they smelled the different air or felt the temperature rise a ton (it was over 90 degrees) but I just want them to be happy and active :(
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Post by morningcoffee on Jun 19, 2020 10:23:44 GMT
Literally everything is perfect for them. They're in a planted tank, with almost 3 inches of soil, the perfect texture substrate, and the temp is always between 70 and 80 degrees except at night where I turn off the heater to emulate the outside world, where it still ends up being a little over 70 (looks about 74right now) and I give them all kinds of food- sweet potato, beets, tomato, carrot, egg, lettuce and cucumber, and a little watermelon or grape once in a while, and yet, these guys are still sleeping. Bear in mind that they are predatory snails that would be regularly hunting and eating other snails/slugs in the wild rather than eating a purely vegetarian diet - are they getting meat or prey regularly? They may be lacking in their diet if not. |
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annatrash
Archachatina marginata
Watching my decollates munch on some hamburger meat :)
Posts: 24
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Post by annatrash on Jun 19, 2020 23:06:57 GMT
Oh crap I didn't think about that. I give them a boiled eggwhite once a week, but no actual meat :/ I think I'm going to start giving them bugs I kill around the house though. They ate a fly once a little over a month ago and I don't know why I haven't thought to make it a regular thing.
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Post by morningcoffee on Jun 20, 2020 7:43:23 GMT
Oh crap I didn't think about that. I give them a boiled eggwhite once a week, but no actual meat :/ I think I'm going to start giving them bugs I kill around the house though. They ate a fly once a little over a month ago and I don't know why I haven't thought to make it a regular thing. I would try giving them some meat and see how they do. If they were originally wild snails they may have been used to hunting prey regularly and are possibly less active without having that as part of their routine. |
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annatrash
Archachatina marginata
Watching my decollates munch on some hamburger meat :)
Posts: 24
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Post by annatrash on Jun 20, 2020 17:45:39 GMT
Oh crap I didn't think about that. I give them a boiled eggwhite once a week, but no actual meat :/ I think I'm going to start giving them bugs I kill around the house though. They ate a fly once a little over a month ago and I don't know why I haven't thought to make it a regular thing. I would try giving them some meat and see how they do. If they were originally wild snails they may have been used to hunting prey regularly and are possibly less active without having that as part of their routine. Alright so yesterday I was cleaning the tank and they woke up after I took them out, so I decided to give them a small chunk of hamburger meat, and I'm pretty sure they didn't touch it at all? I put it on top of some sweet potato to keep it clean and they ate the sweet potato around it, but I don't think they touched the beef. I could be wrong because it would be kinda hard to see rasp marks on it anyways, because of the texture. |
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annatrash
Archachatina marginata
Watching my decollates munch on some hamburger meat :)
Posts: 24
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Post by annatrash on Jun 24, 2020 3:50:52 GMT
Whew update y'all! The snails have all been waking up for the past 3 nights! Idk if it was because I game them meat, or beacuse I moved the heating pad to the bottom but they're up :D
Disclaimer: it actually doesn't dry out the substrate if you have the correct ventilation. The water just gets recycled and actually heats the air. The mat actually didn't work on the side because it doesn't heat ambient air. Anyways it's now a steady 80 degrees [Fahrenheit], which I guess they're more comfortable with considering outside would be over 100 degrees on the daily. Or something.
Edit: Im no longer turning off the heat mat at night so. There's a lot of variables.
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Post by morningcoffee on Jun 24, 2020 7:38:54 GMT
Whew update y'all! The snails have all been waking up for the past 3 nights! Idk if it was because I game them meat, or beacuse I moved the heating pad to the bottom but they're up  Please do be VERY careful with this, it's not generally recommended to use a heat mat under the tank for snails because it has been known to cause the substrate to heat up significantly (especially if the heatmat develops a fault or electrical failure) - some snails will attempt to bury to escape hot ground which of course just digs them further towards the heat mat. I'd recommend using a thermostat with the mat to ensure a low heat and a cut-off in case of any fault, and perhaps using a soil thermometer regularly to check the substrate temperature if you want to keep the mat under the tank. |
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annatrash
Archachatina marginata
Watching my decollates munch on some hamburger meat :)
Posts: 24
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Post by annatrash on Jun 24, 2020 21:45:28 GMT
Whew update y'all! The snails have all been waking up for the past 3 nights! Idk if it was because I game them meat, or beacuse I moved the heating pad to the bottom but they're up :D Please do be VERY careful with this, it's not generally recommended to use a heat mat under the tank for snails because it has been known to cause the substrate to heat up significantly (especially if the heatmat develops a fault or electrical failure) - some snails will attempt to bury to escape hot ground which of course just digs them further towards the heat mat. I'd recommend using a thermostat with the mat to ensure a low heat and a cut-off in case of any fault, and perhaps using a soil thermometer regularly to check the substrate temperature if you want to keep the mat under the tank. Yes, of course! Thank you |
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