Stephanie's Snail Pix

[Steph]

Although not a snail, this little froggy does live with my snails, and I thought it was a nice picture:

His name is Mister Stoopidhead because he frequently can't figure out which way is up, and when he does figure it out, if there's a snail in his way it takes him several tries before he discovers he can move to one side or another and go around the snail.


And from the Don't-Try-This-At-Home files, I was doing some significant maintenance to my snail tank so for a few hours, all of my snails got to spend about two hours crammed up like sardines in my 2.5 gal nursery tank:

[Chickadee]

Oh, what cool pics and beautiful snails! And now I want a frog!

[Steph]

A couple more pics to share:


This was during a feeding frenzy this afternoon. The snail looking out the 'window' is Moby Slick, the Great White Snail. She's just woken up and is looking to see what's going on. It makes me think she's shouting "Hey you kids! Get off my lawn!" though after she got a good look, she came out to join in the feast.



This is my little blue male. He had his buoyancy almost perfect, so he was able to 'swim' - he wasn't parasnailing, he was moving horizontally through the water. He ended up landing on the in-focus leaf just to his left. I'm continually amazed by feats like this



Yes, it's crowded. After a good meal, they like to crawl up the wall to digest. I think they like to digest on a wall so they can rain their poops down on the floor below.



Not technically snails, these four female bettas are in a tank near my snails. They are sisters and were all raised together and are accustomed to each others' company. They're the most responsive, interactive fish I've known - they always like to watch me and follow my movements when I'm nearby.

[nachoqtpie]

fantastic pics Steph!!

[Winterlily]

Yes, great pics and lovely bettas! (I *love* female bettas' personalities! Fantastic as the males are as far as interactivity with their "keeper," the females have them beat!)

[Steph]

Here is a photo of my oldest snail. I adopted him in July 2009, he came from Petsmart. No idea how old he was when I got him, but he's been with me for eighteen months now.


click for full-size image

The outer layer of his shell started to flake off in December 2009. I tried applying a nailpolish patch over the original area, which you can still see today - it's the purple splotch on his backside. Needless to say, covering the original area didn't actually halt whatever has caused this. His original colouring is a dark striped snail, possibly dark striped olive. Nowadays he looks like a giant gumball that has been sucked on for a while.

In spite of this perpetual shell problem, he soldiers on, 18+ months and counting. He's a bit old and crotchety acting, he sleeps a bit more than the younger snails, but he comes out a few times every day and explores the aquarium. He's the biggest snail in my tank now, and not as quick as some of the younger ones... so he frequently finds himself on the receiving end of some of the younger males' affections.

When I first got him, I named him Little Buddy. Incidentally - I used an early picture of him when I made my forum avatar picture. He was so small back then...


click for full size image

This is one of my younger snails, hatched last summer. He's playing on the artificial plants. I call the plants 'trees' as they have a stout thick 'trunk' and then a crown of foliage ontop. The snails all seem to enjoy climbing and hiding in the leaves. This one has found his way to the very top of the 'tree' (about 17 or 18 inches high) so for the moment, he's king of the aquarium.

Cheers!

[pbgroupie]

Wow, Little Buddy's shell really is in sad shape. You can certainly see how the shell is put down in layers though. 18 months is a good long life for a diffusa so you've given him a great home! That ivory sure does look like royalty!

[BlackGoldMysterys]

I've noticed that a layer of snail-snot will keep the calcium from getting swished up into the water.

Haha! I've noticed that when I used Caltrate and Tums for the first time last year. I thought to myself, these snails knew what they were doing better to keep their calcium pile intact.

-So you can put Tums in the water for calcium?

[Steph]

-So you can put Tums in the water for calcium?

You can, although I believe caltrate is preferred because Tums have a lot of other things in them. At least the Tums they sell around here do - colourants, artificial flavours, and so forth.

[BlackGoldMysterys]

-So you can put Tums in the water for calcium?

You can, although I believe caltrate is preferred because Tums have a lot of other things in them. At least the Tums they sell around here do - colourants, artificial flavours, and so forth.

Nice to know, thank you. Although I don't really want to try since my betta is in the same tank. I am not sure how he would react to the tums.

[Steph]

I adopted two more snails... a pair of dark striped cuties.


I named this one Magellan because he's such an explorer. Even on the car-ride home he was crawling all over inside the plastic bag. Then as soon as he was in the aquarium he was roaming all over, investigating and exploring every little detail.


The little dark one in this pic is named Nugget. He was much much more anxious after the trip home; it took about an hour before he opened his operculum to take a little peak outside. By the end of the day though he had completely relaxed and was all out investigating and eating. He likes climbing and hiding in the plants.

(The golden in the background is one of the brood that I hatched out back in Dec/09).

Cheers!

[Steph]

They grow up so fast... just a month ago I adopted Magellan and Nugget. They've both grown a huge amount, completely matured, and now Nugget is laying eggs! From the size of a dime last month to about 1 1/4" across in a month.

The thing that really gets me though is the eggs. How do they fit so many eggs in the shell with them? It's as if the egg clutch is almost as big as her body.



I'm starting to think that their shells must be larger on the inside than they are on the outside. It's got to be some sort of inter-dimensional quantium-physics wormhole kind of thing.

[pbgroupie]

It's no wonder the females get so listless after weeks of laying eggs. They need time to recover!

[Nerite and Apple Mom]

I loved seeing the pictures and reading this little chronicle, what great shots of your snails. I love that first picture of Speed Racer's colors, just gorgeous. I hope you will post more in the future.

Your female Bettas are gorgeous as well.

[Steph]

You'd never think that fish would have trouble competing for food with snails. At least, I find it a tough concept to wrap my head around. It can happen though!



I put some little Hikaru Betta Bites in the tank, and next thing I know there's snails all up at the waterline skimming the water and stealing the food! There's one jade standing on the other's back, and way in the background is a poor betta trying to get her food before the snails steal it all!

Silly snails, your algae wafers are down at the bottom.

Cheers!