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Post by leastseal on Jan 12, 2022 22:36:25 GMT
How close in size does GALS need to be to cohabitate without the bigger rasping on the other shells?
Also does a snail that has been alone for the most of its life just dislike cohabitation?
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snaileyhammy
Achatina tincta
Hi I am Hammy! I adore snails and slugs.
Posts: 550
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Post by snaileyhammy on Jan 16, 2022 2:43:29 GMT
Hello! Snails generally don’t care if they have a “room mate” or not, so there should be no problem there, your snail should be fine either way. I’m not sure about the size difference for GALs, but I do know that snails have different care requirements, so the species care requirements would have to aline before being cohabited. With smaller snails, usually size doesn’t matter, but a GAL owner here might be able to tell you if that applies with them. Sorry I couldn’t help you completely, but I hope that helped you some!
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Post by SuspiciousBagel on Jan 16, 2022 12:10:28 GMT
Hello! GALS owner here. Yes, what snaileyhammy said is correct, GALS don't really care either way. The snail might not dislike cohabitation, it just.. doesn't care. Some snails have been noted to be more active in groups/pairs (but this is probably because they have a natural drive to compete to be the most dominant so they'll strive to eat more food, calcium etc than their tankmates), but others might not do so well. There's no substantial evidence proving either side is correct in terms of whether they need company or not. You'll only want to cohabitate GALS of the same species (GALS in an umbrella term referring to multiple different species, btw). I used to have 2 different GALS species but they had the same temperature and humidity requirements so I ended up actually just putting a plastic divider in the tank and had one on either side and that worked fine so I think that's a viable solution to 'cohabiting' (in quotations because they won't make contact with each other so technically it isn't haha) different species with the same condition needs.
Regarding size difference though, there shouldn't be any bigger difference than ~50% shell size between the snails to cohabitate them. This isn't so much because they'll rasp on each others shells, some will do that anyway regardless of size difference, but because the bigger ones will try to outcompete the smaller ones for food sources, etc and could harm the smaller ones through smothering them.
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Post by leastseal on Jan 25, 2022 18:04:11 GMT
For the rasping on other shells, can it cause long term issues or does their shell grow at a fast enough pace ignore it for 2 snails similar in size?
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Post by SuspiciousBagel on Jan 25, 2022 18:41:22 GMT
Shell rasping is usually very infrequent and purely aesthetic damage (it will not affect the snail in any way, the shell will just look grazed) as long as the snails have a sufficient calcium source otherwise. If a shell is rasped on, though, it doesn't heal up completely, there will always be marks there.
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