GALS Growth

[luna]

I have three GALS, they were all born at the same time, but one is much bigger than the other two. He's eating more than the other two, but is there a reason why the other two haven't grown as much?

[Paul]

Snails grow at different speeds, and in fits and starts so I wouldn't worry as long as they are eating. Sometimes refining your conditions can help but if they appear active and healthy, I'm sure they're fine.

[lee2211]

Jul 29, 2010 0:34:22 GMT Paul said:

Snails grow at different speeds, and in fits and starts so I wouldn't worry as long as they are eating. Sometimes refining your conditions can help but if they appear active and healthy, I'm sure they're fine.

I agree.

I have many snails that are the same age, and some are bigger than others. They are much like humans in that way, if you're really worried maybe provide more calcium, like limestone flour. They'll eat the calcium if they need it, and they know when they need it, but having the choice always comes in handy with picky snails

[coyote]

I've noticed that in any clutch of hatchlings, some will grow quickly and others stay small for a long time, some of the smaller ones even dying off after a few weeks. I suspect that in the wild, the smaller ones would become food for other animals, but in the tank they are not accessible to predators. I don't think nature intended for every single egg to hatch and grow up to be a big, strong snail.

[rosanna123]

i had two young fulicas from the same batch that i kept for a little while, i cant remember how old they were when i sold them but 1 was a good 2" shell the other was one 1" but they both seemed healthy and happy so i didnt worry

[luna]

Thank you Mort is a lot bigger than his siblings, hope the others grow soon. He does eat a lot!

[ness]

Good luck with your little one. Yes I too have had some that never grow much (I think it happens to many of us), and sometimes these snails die off very young, sometimes they just suddenly appear to 'switch off' and die at the time when the clutch is reaching sexual maturity. I suspect (but I don't know) that it's some kind of mechanism that helps to keep stunted snails out of the gene pool.
However some do live long and normal lives. Good luck with your little snail, I hope all goes well.

[cepealove]

Im studying the growth in my 7 hatchling GALs all hatched at the same time. At the moment 6 of them are more or less the same size, one however is really small. When they get bigger i will be weighing them. As long as ther is a steady weight gain you can be sure there is growth. When there this smal it can be harder to notice x

[fabrizio]

It would be a good idea Chrissy, to keep a record of their growth rate, although it will require patience...

As Ness wrote, there is probabily some hidden "self-selective" mechanisms working within, so genetically defective specimens will die before maturity, without passing their genetic load to any offsprings.
And as Coyote suggests, these specimens could die even earlier when they're in the wild, so avoiding subtraction of food resources out of their healthier siblings.

-another hypothesis I thought about, is a self-regulation mechanism, the snails themselves put working by means of secretions of some growth/feeding inhibiting substances.
-This has been proved, as long as I know, in interspecific relationship: and it seems that Theba pisana populations, exert some "inhibiting" influence upon Cernuella virgata (a -just superficially- similar, smaller species) populations, when they do occour together.

It would work as a "Complementar Schismogenesis", as G. Bateson called such kind of phenomena. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schismogenesis

-The more one species/individual grows healthier, the more the "antagonist" one shrinks down to a unfavourable condition.

-A friend was keeping some 5 Achatina (cannot remember the species right now), two of them being "left behind" by far, in respect to others, and the gap seemed to be growing deeper and deeper. I suggested her to put apart the smaller ones, with new substrate (to avoid any possible "inhibiting substance" within); and as a fact they recovered and aliged their growth with the others, in a mere 2 months.

-That could be simply due to somewhat uneven growth rates, as Lee suggested at the beginning; and the whole fact shows us nothing but a mere "anecdotal" evidence and remains something of still doubtful value.
Yet I believe, further experiments should be carried upon about that!

[ness]

Oooh this gets more and more fascinating!
That's very interesting about the inhibiting chemical factor of some species. Makes good sense for the the advanatge of the species sending out the chemicals.

Also very interesting about the suggestion of removing those with stunted growth - it's one worth persuing certainly. That's something to replicate and share the results

[fabrizio]

I would suggest to do that, indeed

If nothing else, it will help for a better caring after the more "disadvantaged" snails, perhaps making their meal being assured, at least!

-And surely it would represent a fascinating field of observations, -mostly still unfathomed I would guess-, expecially if we happen to observe that, when trying to rear together since hatching time several different species, one of which could exert such effect upon the others...