Margie that never moves?

[donna]

Hi, I recently aquired a margie as company for my fulica ('lonely snail and a problem' thread, if you read it) My fulica is now much more active but the margie NEVER comes out unless I give it a warm shower, then it comes out, slithers back under the moss straight away and thats it.
The only time it has come out and stayed out for any length of time is when I took them to the school I work at-I took them in their normal tank as they are both quite small, both snails slithered around the tank and my hand all day! Personally I would hide from the children myself if I had a shell! ;D That's the only time I've seen it eat, as well.
Sometimes it seems 'sealed' into its shell, if that makes sense.
Also, should I just leave it be, or persevere with showering and putting it on food? I am worried about it's lack of food and calcium.
Thanks in anticipation of your help, I don't know what I'd do without you all for help!

[fallenangel]

try upping humidity or heat sounds like conditions arent right for your margie

[Vida]

I have 25-26 degrees heat and about 70/80% humidity and mine sound a bit like that too. Both the margie and (baby) tiger come out when I "wash" them, nibble a little and then go back in their shells. If I don't wash them, they hardly ever come out. The margie also seals herself in after a couple of days. Sometimes I know they've been out at night because they have changed position, but usually the food is only nibbled, not scoffed!

[cleo]

Hi,

I keep all my archachatinas with about 28° heat (sometimes more) and 80-90° humidity. During the nighttime they live with normal temperature in my room (about 22-23°) and all of them come out every evening, the adults and the little ones.

[Vida]

So I am guessing that maybe they prefer lower temperature.
What time do you mean by evening? Mine come out after midnight/one o'clock in the morning.

[cleo]

All my snails come out for food about 7-8 o'clock in the evening. I heat my tanks with heating mats and with spot-lamps. I switch off the lamps around 7 o'clock, before I spray new water into the tanks and maybe 2 hours later I switch off the mats.

[Vida]

I have heat mat and lamp.

Heat mat is on 24 hours a day.

Lamp comes and goes, depending on the day. Just put a night lamp in, but I'm not convinced.

From what I'm seeing, this really has nothing do to with temp/humidity. Maybe it's the food/soil?

[cleo]

In all parts of Africa there's a big difference concerning the temperature in the day- und the nighttime, in some regions they have less than 12° at night, but you harldly find regions (where the GALS live), which have more than 20-21° at night. So I think also in the tanks should be a real difference and I wouldn't heat with mat during the night.
Dependent on the kind of snails it's normal, when they stay in the soil for 2 or 3 days, especially the A.achatina. So also my margis -ovum and suturalis- sometimes stay in the soil for 1 or 2 days but then they come out for food.

[Vida]

Ok, so it's normal I guess. Thanks Cleo.

[Val]

I think the temperature drop at night is certainly beneficial for WC snails, but I have found that my captive bred ones are actually happier with the heatmat on all night. I tried turning it off several times and letting them just have room temp but they hardly ate anything and when I leave the heatmats on all night they scoff everything in sight. For Captive bred snails their "normal" is whatever conditions they have gotten used to since they have never been in the wild.

Val

[Arno]

cleo said:

In all parts of Africa there's a big difference concerning the temperature in the day- und the nighttime, in some regions they have less than 12° at night, but you harldly find regions (where the GALS live), which have more than 20-21° at night. So I think also in the tanks should be a real difference and I wouldn't heat with mat during the night.
Dependent on the kind of snails it's normal, when they stay in the soil for 2 or 3 days, especially the A.achatina. So also my margis -ovum and suturalis- sometimes stay in the soil for 1 or 2 days but then they come out for food.

I think this is not always true.If you look in the library section of the site you can find this info for Nigeria:
"The average annual maximum varies from 35ºC in the north to 31ºC in the south, the average annual minimum from 23ºC in the south to 18ºC in the north. "
For Ghana:
"The mean annual temperature in Ghana never falls below 25 ° C, a consequence of the low latitude of Ghana and the absence of high-altitude areas."
And for Cameroon:
"Cameroon has a tropical climate, humid in the south but dryer to the north. As indicated above, rainfall ranges from about 4 000 mm on the coast to about 400 mm in the north-east. The average temperature in the south is 25° C, while on the plateau it is 21° C and in the north it is 32° C."

[cleo]

Sorry to give you this link in german, maybe some of you know some german words.

www.fernweh.de/kenia_klima.html

This is something about the climate of Kenia, I think you can see the difference between day- and nighttime. Today I was talking with a friend of mine, he's a doctor of biology and he spent a lot of time in Africa to examinate snails, slugs and antelopes (he was in Gambia, Senegal and Uganda) and he told me, that in those countries the climate in the night was always definitely colder than during daytime.

When it's written "average temperature": do they mean daytime or day- and nighttime? I've never been to Africa, I only know some africans from the West (Gambia, Mali, Senegal) and I never heard, that they have at night exactly the same degrees like during daytime.

But....of course, when someone has good experience in warming the tank at night and the snails like it, why should this one change this system...

[coyote]

I think ''average temperature'' means highs and lows averaged together --- daytime and nighttime.

[donna]

I think mine might be cold, the central heating is only on in the evening, and my fulica was happy last year with no heatmat-my fulica is still active-am I right in thinking margies prefer higher temperatures than fulicas? I need a happy medium. Thanks for everybody's help.

[Arno]

Yes you're right about that,I think a good average would be 25 degrees C.

[zirliz]

Mine all do fine at room temperature always active and feeding, If anything my A.fulica need to be more active even the Tigers are more active than them.
They all in the bathroom which seems to suit them best, 'cept the ones I keep with me,