Sand ?

[mrmikey]

Hi, long time no see ? ;D

I'm gonna get some more snails, but I was thinking of the issuse of housing and substrate, Although I remember coir being great it was abit boring on its own. I was thinking that maybe sand could be a good substrate. Apart from burrowing and digging I cant see any dissadvantages.

In fact I can think of more advantages at the moment.

Ps. Of course I'm talking plain sand, no salt. Maybe calcium sand.

[AlienSnail]

Some snails may prefer a mix of sand in with their coir, but unless there's land snails that commonly prefer sand to soil then I'm not convinced it's a good idea on it's own.

[mrmikey]

Hmm..

I cant agure with that. I surrpose thats a big disadvantage that they wont like it .

Thanks :]

[ade]

Hi,
I have used sand / coir mix and sand / top soil mix with my snails and whilst it never caused any problems to the snails there are a few reasons i woudlnt use it as a sole substrate.

1) sand is unforgiving to the tank walls, snails shells etc , it scratches and marks anything quite quickly.
2) It has no nutritional value if the snails sift through it.
3) when wet it is extremely heavy so can be dangerous in glass tanks if they are lifted to clean whilst the sand is in them.

The advantages are

Its easy to clean and can be re-used
Its quite cheap in comparison to some subtrate and obviously much cheaper in the long term. This being dependant on how often you clean your snails tank.

Remembering that many snails do actually live on a mix of sand/soil mix , especially those whom dwell within a strict coastal region.

regards
Ade

[feebix]

Yeah I was going to mention some of Ades cons there, I can`t say I`d use sand myself. I`ve found a mixture of compost and moss/coir to be an exellent substrate. Finished off with a good custodian layer, I haven`t had to change my substrate for months ! It`s still like top quality compost ! The sheer amount of worms and woodlice in there take care of any left over food/poo in no time at all.........

[crossless]

I would not use sand by it self. Different story if you mix it little bit with soil etc. I heard that one snail keeper tried just sand very small sized same that reptiles had. Sand went in through it's breathing hole when snail was burying in and snail died. Very sad story.

Sand is too very bad in glass tank it might scratch tank when you are wiping walls clean.