sharon
Achatina fulica
Posts: 12
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Post by sharon on Jul 27, 2010 7:59:27 GMT
hiya all, would like to know what difference there is between a mature snail and a breeder in Helix aspersa?. many thanks, Sharon
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Post by fabrizio on Jul 27, 2010 12:14:15 GMT
Hello Sharon, a mature snail, should be intended as one able to mate and breed; and in in aspersa, as in many more or less related species, rather than absolute size maturity is shown by the developement of a thick "lip" at the mouthshell; this usually marking the end of the shell-growing process.
Yet there are instances -at least for aspersa- of snail able to mate and lay eggs, even before the full developing of such "maturity lip".
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coyote
Archachatina papyracea
Cochleas ego amo
Posts: 2,955
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Post by coyote on Jul 27, 2010 15:04:58 GMT
A snail can reproduce before reaching full maturity, same as humans.
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Post by fabrizio on Jul 27, 2010 15:59:36 GMT
Someone told -as to Achatina, however- better not letting them mate too soon, as precocious egg developing could then hamper their subsequent growth... I don't know whether it's true, something to adscertain better anyhow.
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Post by lee2211 on Jul 27, 2010 19:06:17 GMT
How would you stop them breeding? They either will or they wont I don't think it would effect growth either otherwise they wouldn't do it, snails have great built in instincts about these things.
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Post by fabrizio on Jul 27, 2010 20:32:05 GMT
That was referred to Achatina reticulata if I remember well, and the person suggested to keep them separately (difficult to achieve if you have several ones), till not large enough, to prevent mating... But still, I can't say at all, how much the fact is true...
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Post by lee2211 on Jul 28, 2010 13:39:38 GMT
I know with Retics they have a terrible habbit of dying after laying eggs... I don't know whether that's got anything to do with breeding before they're mature or not. But I suppose it depends on what you mean by mature, because you'd assume that once they were sexually mature that that meant they were ready to mate and then lay eggs.
So you could mean when they stop growing, or when they reach a certain age, or maybe something like that I suppose.
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Post by fabrizio on Jul 28, 2010 13:57:45 GMT
Difficult to say, Lee, as a fact...
I'm just rearing (1 year old about now) some reticulata, they have reached quite different size despite being same age/same batch...
I keep them still all together, some already grown quite large; not eggs till now anyhow.
-The ambiguous interpretation of the whole matter is quite legitimate indeed, as this species (and most of Achatina sp. pl.) has not even a "definite" growth, and no shell-lip would develop.
So, besides average "whorls number", we haven't a sound clue t assign them to a definite developement/maturation stage.
-I didn't know, about their bad habit to die after laying, that you mention; it's really worthy to know, thank you.
-In most animal species, as a "general rule", reproductive efforts (or precocious reproductive start) seems to be more or less related to a reduction in overall longevity. How that affects snails, and a species rather another in a more particular way, is still to be adscertained, I guess; and our own observations could teach us something, perhaps...
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Post by lee2211 on Jul 28, 2010 15:15:27 GMT
Well my fully grown Fulis have developed a lip, and so do most when they stop growing. But Retics are quite fast growing, and do get quite big so it's possible they haven't finished growing yet. And the same as you, I have 3 Retics, same ages from the same bath and one is growing very fast, and the others are sort of lagging, but that could be due to many reasons, but it's well known that all snails are different and some just don't reach their full potential.
But yes, many people have suffered losses of Achatina Reticulata after them laying eggs. But we're speculating that maybe more high energy foods and nutritious foodstuffs around/after the eggs being laid might help. As after laying so many eggs it takes a lot of energy and it's sometimes found that snails just can't get the energy back, and they pass away.
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Post by fabrizio on Jul 28, 2010 20:22:52 GMT
That's quite likely to be, I believe...
A friend of mine has got 3 Pseudachatina sp., they were already quite exhausted by travel (and dehydrated, we supposed), and died soon... one of them survived longer, about one month, and showed signs of full recover, eating a lot (dog pellets as preferred food, rather than vegetables). Then she produced a batch of around 30 eggs, and the day after was retracted, little reactive to water and heating. She refused to feed again, and was died in about three days. Of course, debilitation at the beginning had a major role in driving her to death.
-I never saw any Achatina sp. or related genus with a truly developed lip, do you have pictures? Do you mean a really thick, everted lip? How old have become yours, to develop that, and how many whorls do they have ? Perhaps mine had not grown (or no yet) to their full age, but their peristoma was always thin and sharp.
In Pseudachatina, at the opposite, we saw a fully developed and everted lip, even if these specimens did not look "gerontic", and one of them was quite small
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