Therealybtk
Arachnopeon
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Someone offered me a giant African snail today for free, anyone have experience with these? What's your opinion on them as pets? Cheers!
Giant African Snail
- Thread starter Therealybtk
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Polenth
Arachnobaron
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- Sep 29, 2018
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I used to keep a couple of land snail species. They're easy to keep and will quickly learn that people aren't a threat. They're fine with being handled usually (though the usual things apply about not holding them too high up... I never had one fall, but their shells are pretty fragile). I thought they were great pets. I lost most of mine due to a fly outbreak, which is why I fly-proof all damp tanks these days.
WildSpider
Arachnobaron
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I've never owned any. Just here to gush
.These always look so cool! I think I originally found out about them from this YouTube video
. I love Shrek in its lettuce leaf (that's at 1:33)!
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BepopCola
Arachnobaron
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Could you elaborate on that? I have tiny flies showing up in my land snail enclosure. Are they dangerous?
I wanted to park a cellar spider in the corner to help keep the population down.
Polenth
Arachnobaron
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The issue wasn't with fungus gnats or fruit flies. They might annoy people, but they're not a big deal to the snails (and they're free food for my fish, so I don't really mind the tiny flies as long as their numbers don't get too extreme).
What happened is they changed our rubbish collection to only once a fortnight, so there was a big outbreak of the sort of flies you'll find on rotting food and dead bodies. People got sick a lot more. The flies got into the snail tanks and the snails died. Most likely due to bacterial infections brought in by the flies. My one survivor was in a tank with only a few narrow ventilation slots, which kept out the flies.
Next there was an outbreak of spiders, to the point that the area looked like the house from Arachnophobia, with webs over everything. After that, things settled down into a new balance. We have a lot more orb weavers around now and not too many flies.
If you do get flies like this, you don't want them to get into the tank at all, which having a spider in the tank won't solve. The sort of fly I'm talking about start from a bit bigger than fruit flies, so it doesn't take much to keep them out. I simply stick net curtain over the vents.
BepopCola
Arachnobaron
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Ah, Ok. Your comment got me worried. I don't have an issue with the larger flies getting into any tanks, as of this moment. I do have cheese cloth over any significant gaps as well. I never really worried about them before, but now I will beware of flies!
I don't keep any really giant snails, but I keep some larger 3-4cm ones that I've found around. They get used to you really quickly. They're easy to feed. They remind me of little armored rabbits. BUT they poop so much, (how big is giant African snail poop?!) I recommend keeping them along with a significant clean up crew.
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Musca domestica? 100% guaranteed bacterial vector.
WildSpider
Arachnobaron
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What cleanup crew do you use with your snails?
BepopCola
Arachnobaron
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Springtails are doing well in the tank. I also added some micropill isopods recently, but it’s too soon to tell how they’ll do.
Bob Lee
Arachnobaron
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- Sep 10, 2018
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Well... Looks like you live right next to me... Which means they are very very illegal for you to keep...
Therealybtk
Arachnopeon
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- Oct 8, 2018
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I've been told