snails without substrate

[carly1979]

Hi,

I have two Achatina Fulica snails. I need to clean out their main tank as it has lots of tiny little bugs in it. Whilst I am cleaning the tank (which I am going to have to do over a few days) I want to put my snails in a separate tank. The snails themselves are also covered in these [seemingly harmless] bugs so I am going to need to clean them daily whilst they are out of the tank to try to make sure I get all the bugs off them before returning them to their clean bug-free home. To make the cleaning process quicker I was wondering if they are ok to be in their temporary tank without any substrate? If they are, how long do you think they would be ok without it for? I think it is likely to take up to about a week.

Thanks for any help,
Carly

[danikat]

They should be fine. I think they can survive without substate indefinately, they're just not very happy with it because they can't burrow and it gives them nowhere to lay eggs.

I'd recommend giving them something, just to cusion the floor in case they fall off the top of the tank and to help keep some moisture in there, maybe paper towels or a bit of spagnum moss, something easy to clean and cheap to replace.

But in my experience if you remove all the substrate from the tank, wash it off with water and put completely new substrate in, and wash anything that's going back in that gets rid of most the bugs. Maybe wait a day or so before adding new substrate to make sure.

Giving the snails a bath/shower (I run mine gently under a warm tap) gets rid of most of the bugs on them as well. Again wait a day or two to make sure before putting them back in the main tank, but it should cut the time down a lot.

[crossless]

Use folded most towels so snails won't hurt them if they fall down. Changing to new towel about every week or when towel starts to smell. If you leave folded ends on top. Snails can little bit chuddle/"dig" in towel and hide there.

If snails have bugs on them I think they will go to new substrate too. :/

[carly1979]

Thanks for the advice - I have moved the snails out into their temporary tank with a folded piece of damp clean fabric in the bottom to protect their shells in case of falls.

crossless - that's why I'm keeping the snails out of the tank for a while so I can clean the bugs off them and monitor over a period of several days to make sure all the bugs are gone before I return them to their cleaned tank.

[carly1979]

They stayed in their temporary tank for over a week and were bug-free for the duration.

I just gave them another bath and have now returned them to their scrubbed clean home with fresh substrate, sterilised logs and chalk, fresh food dish, fresh cuttle fish and fresh water dishes. And their brand new heat mat. Hopefully they will remain bug free for at least a while!

[coyote]

Good luck, and let us know how they are doing!