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Post by eibhlin on Jul 16, 2016 16:46:39 GMT
Yes, it can be overwhelming - but congrats! I know you are in mainland Europe and not the UK, but we have ideal tubs that can be used for snails at stores such as Wilko (for any guests reading). Check Ikea, you'll be able to pick up storage tubs of various sizes, and just drill some holes in. It wont look the most appealing but will happily house the snails if your main/showpiece terrarium gets overcrowded. Hmm yeah maybe i can do that. They used to be in a plastic box with holes in the lid. Maybe if i get 2 large ones and separate the species. Do they need anything else besides soil, food and sepia? I mean, do these tanks also need shelter places and such? I want to keep them till i can see the shell colors so i can pick the ones i like to keep. There is one curious snail tho... He's not bothered by me going in the tank ok turbulence. He's the only one sitting in the middle of the box wile the rest is still hiding in the soil.
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Post by Borini. on Jul 17, 2016 9:33:18 GMT
They'll be fine with just substrate, cuttlefish (sepia) and food. If you want to include a hide you can throw in a plant pot (cheap!) or some moss.
Shelter isn't necessary, the snail would appreciate it but it will not suffer without one.
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Post by eibhlin on Jul 17, 2016 9:37:09 GMT
They'll be fine with just substrate, cuttlefish (sepia) and food. If you want to include a hide you can throw in a plant pot (cheap!) or some moss. Shelter isn't necessary, the snail would appreciate it but it will not suffer without one. I'm not keen on placing moss in there hence what happens to my big tank. I'll look for some cheap pot's or what ever i can find. I also need food dishes so the food isn't on the soil. It turns bad faster on dirt. I saw that i have one empty plastic tank in my storage room. I have loads but most are filled up.
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Post by Borini. on Jul 17, 2016 12:07:54 GMT
I use the little dishes you can get from garden centres for food. They are around 25p here, so 0.30 euro! Pots should be cheap too. If your snails are prone to dropping I would lean towards a plastic one to prevent any accidental shell damage.
What happened with your big tank & moss?
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Post by eibhlin on Jul 17, 2016 12:37:02 GMT
I use the little dishes you can get from garden centres for food. They are around 25p here, so 0.30 euro! Pots should be cheap too. If your snails are prone to dropping I would lean towards a plastic one to prevent any accidental shell damage. What happened with your big tank & moss? I have no idea if the little ones will drop often. My big tank has mites i think. I made a topic about it. I have no clue what else could have brought this in. Either the moss or the plants. So now i'm wondering what to do and what to replace. I ordered some of the mites that eat these bad mites. They are here by saterday. Fortunately they aren't in my baby snail tank as far as i've seen.
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Post by eibhlin on Jul 21, 2016 8:56:40 GMT
I have a small problem... I just went to get my spare tank. When i took it my eye met with something very unexpected. Baby snails!!! I have totally no idea how there can be eggs in that container!! The snails have been moved for a while now. I didn't spray the soil any more, there was no food in there. I have no idea if they are doing fine. I did a quick spray and placed some cucumber. But now i can't move my snails in an other tank as i was planning on doing today. Second problem. I also found baby snails in my big tank. Seriously... I checked all plants recently and no eggs! And now... baby's. I have no idea what to do now. I have to empty that tank. All i can try to do is be very careful, catch all baby's and put them with the others. But now i really have waaaaaay to many snails!
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Post by etana on Jul 21, 2016 9:08:05 GMT
Uhoh wow, that reminds me of how one time I was moving my wild caught snails and their previous tank was, so I thought, snail-less. I obviously didn't put food or water in there anymore. Well, quite a while later I went to remove the old soil from the old tank and found living juveniles. I don't know how it's possible, I certainly don't know how they survived it, what they ate etc.
That's how snails have taken over the world though. My hat goes off to them, clever little creatures.
Since your snails are wild caught, you can release the extra babies outside once they grow a bit. Look for somewhere that has some adult snails of their species, and they'll be ok there.
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Post by eibhlin on Jul 21, 2016 9:16:03 GMT
They all seem about the same age. I misted the tank, placed some cucumber and sepia. Maybe if i can lure them on the cucumber i can take them out. I saw yesterday that one of my bushes is filled with baby cepaea's so maybe i can put them there. Now i wonder if there are super pretty ones in one of the hatchings haha. But now i'm a bit scared to add snails. More snails = more eggs. I suspect the ones in my big tank and the one in the spare tank to be cepaea. They seem to small to be from my Helix a. I'm glad they started moving when i misted, my heart fell flat when i saw that. I have no clue how i could have missed both eggs. I've been taking dirt out of my spare rank, move the dirt around and such. Never seen a single egg! Last week i also checked all plants in my big tank, no eggs! See thats why i need a better managable tank! Fake plants will doe the trick i think. I can dig the earth better that way.
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Post by eibhlin on Jul 21, 2016 10:04:14 GMT
Ok so i did an emergency set up. Took the fern out of my big tank because it was covered with baby's. The baby's on the soil were scooped up with a spoon and i placed them in with the baby's that were in the tank. And then they say cepaea have a big mortality rate... Seems my house is a perfect breeding spot! I'm not even going to bother counting how many there are. So here is my emergency tank. Yeah the walls are not very clean but i didn't expect this... And i can't really clean anything because it like filled with snails. These tiny ones are very fast! Some were already ON the lid when i placed it aside for a moment. I really hope none escaped out of my big or spare tank. I did a check upstairs in that room and in my living room but so far no baby snails. Maybe they don't go that far away from 'home'. 'm gonna do some search on when they become sexually active so i can release them before they do... Now i will also have to add some of the hypoaspis miles in these tanks as well...
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Post by eibhlin on Jul 21, 2016 10:31:07 GMT
I was thinking... Maybe it can help to put a small layer of dirt in the tank. To shallow to lay eggs in. And provide a spot that i can reach well that is like a hill with a plant. So they will probably put their eggs on that spot in stead of somewhere in a huge tank? Or is that a bad idea?
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Post by etana on Jul 22, 2016 16:25:17 GMT
I was thinking... Maybe it can help to put a small layer of dirt in the tank. To shallow to lay eggs in. And provide a spot that i can reach well that is like a hill with a plant. So they will probably put their eggs on that spot in stead of somewhere in a huge tank? Or is that a bad idea? I see in the other thread that you already did that. It's not a bad idea, both me and Zorst do that in tanks with snails whose eggs we must keep track of. It works pretty well, the hill does attract most of the egg laying snails and the shallow part is super fast to check.
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Post by eibhlin on Jul 22, 2016 17:28:43 GMT
Yeah i had to kinda work on it because i get these hypostis (or something) mites in tomorrow. So the tank needed to be set to go. Did they ever lay eggs in the shallow parts? I placed a ruler next to it and it's about 2cm but a snail is almost as big. So even if they dig they probably don't have room for the eggs to drop. I really hope this will be better to keep an eye on. I can check the hill once a week without making a big mess like the previous setup. I also placed it in front so i can aaaaalways see it If a snail is there for a while i can be sure to find eggs.
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Post by etana on Jul 22, 2016 18:08:44 GMT
Yes, some of my snails like to hide single eggs, and those can be anywhere including the shallow parts. Then again missing just one egg is hardly a catastrophe. Whole clutches of several dozen eggs or more haven't been in the shallow soil in my tank, though I've only had this set-up for a relatively short while. Zorst how about you?
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Post by eibhlin on Jul 22, 2016 19:49:02 GMT
Mine have never laid eggs on multiple places. They always dig in and stay at the spot till they are finished. When they are done they go to an other spot and sleep a day. Can't wait to see them explore their new home. When the baby's are bigger they will move to my other plastic tank. The ones i found in my spare tank are doing fine by the way. They don't seem to be harmed by the situation. They are eating well and hiding in the plants.
Small question but, how do you replace the food with baby snails? I took a leaf out today because it was really starting to get bad. I misted it and slide the baby's off so they fell on the soil. I have no idea how else to do it?
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Post by eibhlin on Jul 22, 2016 20:12:35 GMT
An other question i don't seem to find an answer on. At what age to their shell color start to show? I want to pick 2 to keep and release the others. Also how do i feed them proteins for growth?
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