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Post by etana on Feb 1, 2016 18:15:28 GMT
I'm not actually sure where this belongs, but I guess "egg" matches well enough.
There is a fulica, in a very strange position, with good, hard, white eggs coming out of her and piling up on top of the soil. And there's Tauno, his foot against hers, he's touching, patting and kissing her with a facial expression usually seen when something displeases him, a horizontal wrinkle across his face.
I took pictures and even some video, but I have no idea how this began and whether the mom is ok at all. I wish I understood.
Tauno always finds the snails in distress and helps them out, but it still surprises me every time how well he does it. When she is finished they will both get a nice bath and extra yummy snacks, Tauno as well for being so nice.
Just now he stretched all over her and gave her a huge hug and kiss, and seems to be leaving from her side, but has a lot of trouble doing it as everything interesting is in the direction where he actually has to snail over her. He's really trying not to put all his weight on her, he's very careful.
I'll post pics later if they are any good.
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Post by etana on Feb 1, 2016 21:42:36 GMT
The egg laying stopped and the mom passed out. Tauno climbed onto the glass and sat still rasping it. I took them both to the kitchen and noticed she had shrunken and was extremely exhausted. I prepared some egg for them, Tauno wouldn't touch it at all before she did and insisted on holding on to her shell! However she couldn't really rasp.
I really have to get my sleep so I took a shot at force feeding her spirulina (by soaking it well and putting it on her face - I need syringes!) and sat her in a bath in the tank. I hope she makes it.
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Post by jolovessnailies on Feb 1, 2016 23:29:26 GMT
Oh Etana love, I am so sorry to hear this, I hope the little lady is OK. Bless her for going through all that and for Tauno for being so caring and loving. I am sure she will be fine love and I bet she is enjoying her bath. Please do keep me posted, I will say a prayer for her tonight.
Hugs
JO xx
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Post by etana on Feb 2, 2016 4:23:31 GMT
She has had a few more eggs come out of her at night. That could also be why she had such trouble eating, and I do hope she got them all out. I forgot to mention that Tauno also bubbled a lot when he held her as I offered them the egg.
She's sleeping now, fully in her shell but not in deep retraction, and appears to have pooped a bit. I'll let her rest and check on her after the long day on campus that is coming up for me today.
Poor snail, she's not very big so this possibly was her first clutch.
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Post by etana on Feb 2, 2016 20:09:22 GMT
The mommy snail has moved around and pooped, so she must have eaten too. She still looks weak and small, so I put her back in the bath and placed ultra thin sweet potato slices within her reach. I like to think she has a good chance of recovery, since she is moving on her own and generally showing interest in life. I'm sure the tank mates help with that, I saw one (Iivari I think) go pat her earlier until she came out. I gave Tauno a piece in front of his face too as he's just such a sweetheart. Don't worry, I added food for everyone else as well.  Now I just have to collect the eggs that the poor young lady dropped all over the warm end of the tank. |
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Post by jolovessnailies on Feb 2, 2016 20:55:02 GMT
The poor little sweetheart, I am so glad she has you for a humum. She probably just needs extra rest time, some nice bathing. With some TLC which she is obviously getting, I am sure she will be fine Etana love. I said a prayer for her last night and I will do so again tonight. I am so pleased that Tauno is being so kind and attentive. They generally seem to prefer really thin slices of sweet potato don't they? I do my best every day lovingly slicing and peeling and breaking it in half so it is spread over the plate.
Thank you for keeping us posted love.
Hugs
JO xx
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Post by etana on Feb 5, 2016 8:27:59 GMT
Thank you Jo. Things look all right in the tank today, complete with Mommy Halonen ever so discreetly having dug a burrow almost in the very center spot of the tank - she is now sitting there with her shell sticking straight up, totally shouting "I'm not laying eggs! Look the other way!" LOL. She never ever burrows for any other reason.
So the egg business in the tank is back to normal, and as far as I can tell the young mom with the troubled laying is doing ok, physically at least.
Yeah they usually find the thinnest slices the most irresistible! It's great to see their faces when those are offered.
I am uploading the video right now, if it works at all I will post it.
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Post by etana on Feb 5, 2016 9:01:19 GMT
I didn't do anything to the audio track yet so it's best watched with sounds off. This is a very short clip compared to how long the laying took, but you get the idea.
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Post by jolovessnailies on Feb 5, 2016 21:59:36 GMT
Oh bless her little heart, burying like that she isn't fooling anyone is she? I hope the young mom is OK Love, you feel so helpless don't you, their world being different from ours? Sorry to be stupid but the video, is there something wrong there, are the eggs not being hatched properly? I did say I had a lot to learn.
Hugs
Jo xx
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Post by etana on Feb 6, 2016 6:26:07 GMT
Lol indeed not. I will have to look after Halonen a bit today, she is always in a bad mood after laying. She has come out of the burrow now and is sleeping on a piece of sweet potato. Yeah I couldn't do anything, so I was really glad that Tauno was there. Um... The only thing wrong is that she is not burrowing for the egg laying, but instead in this very uncomfortable looking position, with the eggs falling all over the place. Other than that it was a good sized clutch of perfectly formed eggs. |
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Post by GrandTouringShell on Feb 6, 2016 17:02:17 GMT
Glad you added the video to give us a better idea of how this situation looks. Your snail indeed looked exhausted, and it's strange how it didn't bother to dig a hole. A couple possibilities:
1. The eggs came sooner than it anticipated
2. The snail didn't have the energy to burrow
3. Some snails just don't care and will lay their eggs wherever, whenever they want.
Based on what I read above, I'm probably going to lean more towards it being weak.
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Post by etana on Feb 7, 2016 20:32:03 GMT
Yes GTS, I too think it was weakness, and possibly that the snail somehow was surprised by the eggs coming. I would suppose that if she'd had the chance, she wouldn't have chosen to lay the eggs hanging upside down over her shell edge like that, looking like the position only made it harder.
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Post by jolovessnailies on Feb 7, 2016 22:22:09 GMT
Oh love her, I hope she is getting more her snaily self now Etana love. Of course, I am stupid, they are supposed to bury themselves aren't they when they lay, I am thick sometimes, of course it is not natural to lay above ground. Please blow her a kiss from her auntie Jo JO.
Hugs
Jo xx
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Post by etana on Feb 10, 2016 14:59:43 GMT
I'm afraid the mom hasn't recovered fully. She is back to her normal size but will suddenly stop whatever she is doing, stretch up, and make a really unhappy face. I put her in the bath tub once again, and hoped that the other snails would encourage her to eat the food that was there; as long as I was watching, she just sat there with her eyes drooping a bit while everyone else ate, drank and patted her. Now, a few hours later, she has gotten up from the bath and fallen asleep next to it, her little head resting on top of another snail's shell. I really hope the big poop in the water is hers and she has been constipated or something simple like that, and the problematic egg laying didn't leave her with internal problems...but I'll see if she makes it through the day.  |
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Post by etana on Feb 10, 2016 20:15:34 GMT
Ok, the young mommy snail, now named Olf, is dying. She has some very strange symptoms that I documented with photos, but will post in a different thread with warnings in the title so no one has to read or see them without knowing.
What really gets to me is Olf's friend, who sits there attached tightly to her shell, kissing her all over, over and over again. I had the two snails in the kitchen for a check-up and he ate just a little bit of the spirulina I offered, but quickly went back to paying attention to only her. He even rasped her very gently to get a reaction, and when nothing happened but the pulling in of her last tentacle that was out, he stopped, extremely slowly let go of her skin (but not her shell) and just stayed still for a while looking straight into my eyes. She however continued to breathe so he returned back to kissing her.
I have returned them both to the tank now because it's warm and nice there. She bubbled quite a bit and went into her shell. Her little is friend still superglued to her shell, making faces that go inwards.
It's a shame that she is going, but I am so incredibly moved by the other snail's efforts and I'm glad she's not dying alone. Poor fellow, I hope he too finds a friend to comfort him.
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