Snails are did not move since 2 months

Esekpaso

Arachnopeon
Joined
Apr 12, 2020
Messages
36
Hello. My snails (6 snails) are did not move since 2 months. They are now staying at lettuce piece. And they closed their holes with a paper liked thing.I watered them every week with room temp. water. Is it normal? I will wait your answers.
 

schmiggle

Arachnoking
Joined
Nov 3, 2013
Messages
2,220
I can't remember what the name of this snail is, but I expect it's aestivating because you added in a bunch of ventilation and it's too dry. I've seen them doing this on walls before. Increase the humidity and moisture and they should come back out. I expect they're fine.
 

Esekpaso

Arachnopeon
Joined
Apr 12, 2020
Messages
36
[QUOTE = "schmiggle, yayın: 3069189, üye: 76813"]
Bu salyangozun adının ne olduğunu hatırlayamıyorum, ancak tahmin ediyorum ki bir grup havalandırma eklediniz ve çok kuru. Bunu daha önce duvarlarda yaptıklarını gördüm. Nemi ve nemi arttırın ve tekrar dışarı çıkmaları gerekir. İyi olduklarını umuyorum.
[/ALINTI]
Thank you too much. :)
 

Esekpaso

Arachnopeon
Joined
Apr 12, 2020
Messages
36
I can't remember what the name of this snail is, but I expect it's aestivating because you added in a bunch of ventilation and it's too dry. I've seen them doing this on walls before. Increase the humidity and moisture and they should come back out. I expect they're fine.
Thank you too much :)
 

schmiggle

Arachnoking
Joined
Nov 3, 2013
Messages
2,220
It's probably Cornu aspersa, if that helps with care information. I'd be pretty interested to see how this goes.
 

Xeroporcellio

Arachnosquire
Joined
Feb 1, 2020
Messages
56
These snails belong to Hygromiidae, with two possible ids being Xerolenta obvia and/or Xeropicta krynicki (Hygromiids can be tough to identify, especially if you don't have much experience with them-like me. Plus, I don't know well the Turkish richness of this family). Many members of this family, especially genera staring with ''Xero-'' (e.g., Xerocrassa, Xerolenta, Xeromunda, Xeropicta and Xerotricha) are quite hardy species, adapted to sunny, warm and sandy places (note that ''Xero-'' means ''dry'' in Greek). As a result, they aestivate for most parts of the year (like yours). As @schmiggle said, if you want to ''wake them up'' and keep them active for most of the time, increase the humidity and moisture of the enclosure.

Some things you should also have in mind, if you want to keep them successfully and possibly breed them, are:
1) You should provide them with some pieces of cuttlebone or egg shell, as a main source of calcium (essential for shell and egg development).
2) They like to cling on vertical surfaces, like walls, tree trunks and plant stems/leaves. So, you could try to add a vertical surface (e.g., a piece of bark) into their enclosure.
3) If they become active again, they will start moving and pooping too. Because of this, you should regularly (e.g., once a week) clean their enclosure from slime and feces. This will prevent decease transmission.
4) Last, but not least, be careful with feeding and moistening! Lettuce is a cheap, easy and usually acceptive food for many snails, but it has a big disadvantage: It is mostly made of water! As a result, if not eaten whole, it will eventually turn into a rotten pile of vegetable matter and dripping water. This, combined with regular moistening and left feces and slime, will sooner or later turn the enclosure into a smelly, dead water pool! To avoid this from happening, use as little lettuce as possible (only pieces that snails devour without leftovers) and alternate between lettuce and other, less watery vegetables (like carrots). Finally, when moistening, you should be careful not to use too much water. The soil should be kept slightly moist, but not especially wet or dump (e.g., not dripping when held in hand and no visible puddles in the enclosure).
 

Xeroporcellio

Arachnosquire
Joined
Feb 1, 2020
Messages
56
Interesting. How did you ID?
Regarding Southeastern Europe and Turkey, snails with those shell characteristics (globular shape, dark protoconch, whitish shell background with brown stripes and lines and broader final whorl) would belong to either Helicidae or Hygromiidae. From the former family, only Theba pisana would be a good candidate, but it has a somewhat flatter shell and a less ''visibly bigger'' final whorl, so it is excluded. Also, it has a distinct umbilicus, but, unfortunately, no photos from the underside are provided here. As a result, Hygromiidae remains the only solution (this shell type is indeed quite widespread within the fmily). The genera and species ids provided are more or less provisional and plain suggestions, as: 1) many members of this family tend to have similar shells, even in different genera and 2) I have not such an experience with this group to make 100% safe identifications. However, the two species suggested occur in Turkey and are generally quite common. Plus, those transverse, rib-like dark stripes are typical of many Xeropicta spp. (''picta''=''decorated'').

A useful site for identification of European snails is this (http://www.animalbase.uni-goettingen.de/zooweb/servlet/AnimalBase/list/families?highergroup=28). It also provides catalogs and entries for other terrestrial and marine families, but usually without details [e.g., compare the page of Achatina fulica (http://www.animalbase.uni-goettingen.de/zooweb/servlet/AnimalBase/home/species?id=3618) with that of Xeropicta krynickii (http://www.animalbase.uni-goettingen.de/zooweb/servlet/AnimalBase/home/species?id=1315).
 

Esekpaso

Arachnopeon
Joined
Apr 12, 2020
Messages
36
These snails belong to Hygromiidae, with two possible ids being Xerolenta obvia and/or Xeropicta krynicki (Hygromiids can be tough to identify, especially if you don't have much experience with them-like me. Plus, I don't know well the Turkish richness of this family). Many members of this family, especially genera staring with ''Xero-'' (e.g., Xerocrassa, Xerolenta, Xeromunda, Xeropicta and Xerotricha) are quite hardy species, adapted to sunny, warm and sandy places (note that ''Xero-'' means ''dry'' in Greek). As a result, they aestivate for most parts of the year (like yours). As @schmiggle said, if you want to ''wake them up'' and keep them active for most of the time, increase the humidity and moisture of the enclosure.

Some things you should also have in mind, if you want to keep them successfully and possibly breed them, are:
1) You should provide them with some pieces of cuttlebone or egg shell, as a main source of calcium (essential for shell and egg development).
2) They like to cling on vertical surfaces, like walls, tree trunks and plant stems/leaves. So, you could try to add a vertical surface (e.g., a piece of bark) into their enclosure.
3) If they become active again, they will start moving and pooping too. Because of this, you should regularly (e.g., once a week) clean their enclosure from slime and feces. This will prevent decease transmission.
4) Last, but not least, be careful with feeding and moistening! Lettuce is a cheap, easy and usually acceptive food for many snails, but it has a big disadvantage: It is mostly made of water! As a result, if not eaten whole, it will eventually turn into a rotten pile of vegetable matter and dripping water. This, combined with regular moistening and left feces and slime, will sooner or later turn the enclosure into a smelly, dead water pool! To avoid this from happening, use as little lettuce as possible (only pieces that snails devour without leftovers) and alternate between lettuce and other, less watery vegetables (like carrots). Finally, when moistening, you should be careful not to use too much water. The soil should be kept slightly moist, but not especially wet or dump (e.g., not dripping when held in hand and no visible puddles in the enclosure).
Thank you for a lot of useful information. I will pay attention
 

Esekpaso

Arachnopeon
Joined
Apr 12, 2020
Messages
36
Awesome! Did you change anything about how you were caring for them?
Sorry im too late.
No. I did xeno's advices. But they again leave moving. Is about with dry and hot weather? Im watering them and dirt and box. And still make the advices. In the picture i didnt watered them.
 

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schmiggle

Arachnoking
Joined
Nov 3, 2013
Messages
2,220
They still look really dry to me, I would get everything really wet. If you live in Turkey, they're probably only active in the wild in your winter, when it gets very wet as I understand.
 

Esekpaso

Arachnopeon
Joined
Apr 12, 2020
Messages
36
They still look really dry to me, I would get everything really wet. If you live in Turkey, they're probably only active in the wild in your winter, when it gets very wet as I understand.
Thank you☺. This information made me glad. Yes im living at Turkey. And my city's weather is dry and hot. I will do your advice about watering. Again thank you. I have another question. Is my snail box ok?
 
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