Stephanie's Snail Pix

[pbgroupie]

You certainly have a bunch of ambitious snails there! That must be some good food.

[cutesnails!]

lovely snails!

[Steph]

Hi everyone!

I haven't been around lately, for which I am sorry (stupid life and it's pesky inconveniences), but I'm still avid about my snails. I was just thinking, I couldn't imagine not having an aquarium and at least a few apple snails. Not that this is a problem for me at the moment. As much as I said I wouldn't let any more eggs hatch again ever... the snails sometimes are craftier hiding them than I am at finding them. So I have another batch of snails. Luckily it was just one (small) clutch.

Anyhow, of the lot, one really stood out to me as the pick of the litter. There are lots of dark striped / wild type snails, lots of golden snails, and a lot of golden-with-brown-stripes. But so far,I think there is just one single "redhead":


Her* body is a very light yellow, almost white, but with some peach-coloured flecks as visible in the above image. The shell has a yellow leading edge but immediately after that it turns into this dark deep rich red colour. I believe it's a yellow base with brown stripes but the stripes are so wide they all joined up - resulting in this really deep hue.


Here's a top-down look at her shell. I had to over-expose the image otherwise the camera doesn't see the red. You can sort of get a feel for the richness of her colour and the faint stripes. If the shell doesn't look red to you, I'll blame the camera. Even over-exposed it is not capturing quite what I see with my eyes. (Or maybe my eyes are skewed...)


She's still young - here she is hogging an algae wafer to keep it away from an african dwarf frog. Yeah my ADFs sometimes steal algae wafers from the snails. And the snails sometimes steal bloodworms, so it all works out.

(I don't know that it's actually a female, I just call it 'her'... actually her full name is "Red! The Scarlet Slimer!")

Cheers!

[Chickadee]

Scarlet is gorgeous! I've never seen one that color. Cute frog too

[pbgroupie]

That's a beautiful example of a burgundy snail.

[Steph]

Here we witness the deadly feeding frenzy:


A school of young algae wafers have inadvertantly wandered into the snails’ territory. Highly attuned to the playful cries of the young wafers, it did not take long for the matriarch of the pride (whom I have dubbed Big Shelly) to stalk the careless algaes. Cornering them in the china dish, she pounced!

Following the matriarch’s initial strike, the scent of wounded wafer was all it took to drive the remainder of the pack into a frenzy of algae-lust. It is with little concern for each other, that they throw themselves into the fracas, rasps flailing hungrily.

Nearby, a pair of frogs watch patiently. Only after the snails have been sated, will it be safe for them to approach and pick at whatever scraps the snails have left.

Would that we could remain and observe the frenzy to its completion - but I fear the young Burgundy has spotted me! The look of algae-lust in her face is unmistakable. It is not safe to remain here...

[pbgroupie]

*snort* Beautiful snails!

[Steph]

Thank you

[Steph]

I just found this picture among some I recently imported from my camera. I'm not sure exactly when it was taken, some time in the autumn.

My last snail pic:


Around the winter solstice a big ice storm hit southern Ontario and did a lot of damage. My house was damaged, and it was one of about 300,000 homes that lost power. After the ice storm damage, the temperature dropped and it got bitterly cold. I had no power, and no heat.

We toughed it out for a day, but after about 30 hours it was just a few degrees above freezing in the house, and I was forced to leave.

It ended up being a full 7 days before power and heat were restored to the house. The temperature indoors had bottomed out at just above freezing. Unfortunately I lost all my aquarium friends. I knew when I came home that they wouldn't have survived, but it was still fairly devestating to have to come back and face them like that.

The tanks all needed to be torn down and cleaned out anyways, and after that it was too difficult to think about starting again.

Sorry, maybe I should have posted this to the graveyard thread... but it was finding the last photo that I wanted to post so I thought putting it here with the rest of my pictures would be more suitable.

[pbgroupie]

You have my deepest sympathy. We just went through a similar situation this week, ice and no power for 3 days. We couldn't leave and had to tough it out. Lost some of my favorite wet pets that I had had for about 7 years. I don't know if I'll replace them either. The only comfort I can take is that their metabolism slowed down enough where they didn't feel pain when they passed, they were mostly comatose.

[Steph]

I'm so sorry pbgroupie. It's heartbreaking, and such a helpless feeling.

[Chickadee]

Steph & PB, I'm so sorry about your fish and snail losses. I know what a helpless feeling it is to lose power when it's cold. It was a brutal winter. I'm so sorry.