# Giant African Land Snail (A.Fulica)question



## Marc_C (Jun 15, 2003)

Ok, there is some weirdness going on in my Giant African Land snail bin. I have 2 Adults and they both have a weird white lump, kinda looks like a giant pimple, on the exact same place. It's on the right side of their "face". I have read before that when they mate you can see some sort of white spine that sticks out of them, but I'm not sure if this is what im witnessing.

Nothing has really changed in the bin. I feed them fruits and veggies along with some dry cat/dog food and I always have cuttlebone in there for calcium. I also mist them with a spray bottle every now and then.

So am I gonna have a lot more baby snails or just a couple of big dead ones? I'm confused:?


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## sunnymarcie (Jun 17, 2003)

Can you post a picture? Maybe I can tell you more.


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## Marc_C (Jun 17, 2003)

I don't own a camera, but maybe I can get a friend of mine to come down with his sometime soon. 

The lumps are white and they kinda look like they are filled with pus. They are circular and they can be contracted inwards when the snails get frightened. On one of the snails, I noticed that the lump turned dark brown yesterday, but only for a short while, then it was white again. 

They are still eating well and they don't seem to be losing weight over it. They basically seem exactly the same as they were before other then that they have white lumps in identical places. 

Marc


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## sunnymarcie (Jun 19, 2003)

In looking around on the net I found this site
http://www.landsnails.4mg.com/ehelp.html

You can try to Email this person from the form on the page.
I have never bred snails, we only have 1 GAL. I can't imagine
having so many!


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## sunnymarcie (Jun 19, 2003)

Here is my little "Slimey"


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## Marc_C (Jun 19, 2003)

Thanks for the link. I will definatly ask him. 

I think one of my friends said it best, Snails are like cows with shells. All they do is sit on top of their food and eat all day long.


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## Weapon-X (Jun 19, 2003)

*re*

yes the white thing sticking out of their neck is what they refer to as "love darts" if you seen them doing this and crawling all over each other then they have mated, in about 1 month if the temps are right you have around 1000 eggs(because of cousre both are gravid) hehe, then they'll hatch in about 1-2 weeks, ....my suggestion is freeze the eggs you don't want because you'll soon be overun with snailys, also if don't see the eggs in a pile(and their literaly eggs with a shell like minature bird eggs), then look in the soil they'll be buried, keep the eggs warm and moist in peat and they'll hatch in no time, hope this helped.


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## Marc_C (Jun 20, 2003)

I understand completly how they mate and what they do. The only thing that I was concerned with was that these arent spikes or harpoon looking things, they look more like white sores to me. I'm still not sure what the "love darts" are supposed to look like.


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## Weapon-X (Jun 21, 2003)

*re*

the things your refering to, are they on their neck? if they are they are the "love  darts" basicaly their sexual organs, when you see them as you describe they are retracted and they resemble like a white raised bump almost like white mold or something unnatural, they pull them in if their interupted sometimes other times you'll catch them with the sexual organs sticking into each others necks,lol this sounds weird, i don't know if you know this or not but their not darts thats just a nickname ....


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## Marc_C (Jun 21, 2003)

The whole snail mating thing is confusing the hell out of me. I've heard the term "love darts" before, not just from you. I've always assumed that they would be dart looking. I've decided not to worry about it anymore. They arent slowing down or not eating, infact they seem to be eating more. If they are going to have a bunch of babies that would be great because I'm gonna be using them for feeders.


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## dalila (Aug 13, 2018)

hi! is it possible for a snail that lives on its own to be extracting its "dart" ?? i think i saw mine do it but i only own one snail
i m worried it might be something else but it perfectly fits your description
will my snail lay egg by itself??


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## spookyvibes (Aug 13, 2018)

dalila said:


> hi! is it possible for a snail that lives on its own to be extracting its "dart" ?? i think i saw mine do it but i only own one snail
> i m worried it might be something else but it perfectly fits your description
> will my snail lay egg by itself??


This thread is fifteen years old, I think you’d have more luck getting an answer if you started a new thread


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