Strange behaviour (Archachatina puylaerti)

[achatina]

Hi,

as some of you might know I now have some new Archachatina puylaerti (wildcaughts). At the moment they're in quarantine in a proportionally small box, I give them a bath each evening and they get different foods: cucumber, green squash, (dried) gammarus, catfood, salad, sweet potatoe, sometimes oat flakes... well, a great assortment of food

Nevertheless they're a bit strange, don't know... always sitting - strangely knotted - together, not retracted, and I noticed that the dirt is really dark (even if they get green or whitish food) as if they had eaten the substrate

They seem to like the sepia, nevertheless, it is used (and they'll sometimes sleep on it)... am I overreacting and they just have to acclimate?

I want not to take any risk, adult puylaerti are hard to get and I now had enough "lonesome" puylaerti (two times...)... so I'll better ask if everything's okay (the puylaerti I had until now have been much more active) and if someone of you has some advice?

Best regards,
achatina

[feebix]

When you say knotted together, do you mean entwined around each other? if so that sounds like they`re mating. As for the colour of the poo, I really wouldn`t worry that it`s a different colour than what you`re feeding them, I would think it`s dark because you`re giving them cat food. When I give mine sweet potato, they always do bright orange poo! but I don`t feed cat food. I know nothing about that species, but generally, as a snail keeper, I`d say theres nothing at all to worry about myself. When you say you "give them a bath" do you actually dunk them in a bit of water? or just put some water in the enclosure? If you`re trying to aclimate some wild caught specimins, I`d leave them to their own devices for a while, no handling or bathing them. Hope that helps.......

[achatina]

No, not mating, unfortunately ;D
They're just sitting very knotted - not "folded" as (I'm?) used to my A. achatina or Archachatina marginata egregiella for example - in the box, sometimes together. I'm trying to take a photo...

Bathing means putting them in a tank and then spray with warm water. After that they are much more active and more interested in food...

With the dark poo... perhaps they're eating the leaves I put in their tank,too...? Currently I'm doing a little experiment with autumn foliage, my little ones like it... for food and hiding.
At least this morning everything was eaten I'll gave them yesterday (green squash+gammarus)

[feebix]

Ah well just spraying the enclosure is good practice anyway isn`t it. Mmmm....... Yeah I think a picture is in order. A very bent looking snail means disease usually, if it looks like it`s been "snapped" I look forward to seeing the photos, interesting...

[achatina]

Hi,

at the moment they're eating... and just one is looking knotted, on the left top:



really strange... they are doing this all the time, I've noticed it sometimes on my A. achatina, but not in that case
Perhaps just overreacting... I need a snail psychology course!

best regards,
achatina

[achatina]

Hi,

I managed to get a pic of my knotted puylaerti (took me five minutes as my camera is getting stranger and stranger everyday) - are they just sociable? Are they cold?

It's a strange way of sleeping!


Four of them...

Best regards,
achatina

[vickyholt13]

i'm sorry i'm not much help i am unsure if it had been a one off i wouldn't have thought any thing wrong but find in them like that alot is a bit strange. hoever they are eating fine hmmm strange sorry i'm not much help

[AlienSnail]

You could try raising the temperature slightly, but I have found that some of my Archachatina marginata often stay and sleep together like that. I think it is probably normal behaviour for them.

Cute

[feebix]

I can`t help but think the knotting your talking about is something totally normal, the one on the top left looks like a perfectly normal snail to me.

[loly]

sometimes my iredalei knot up like this, i agree with Ness&Fee. this is probably just natural/normal behaviour