The Snailwatchers musings

Back from hibernating

2008-09-15T21:36:00.002+02:00

While the snails outside probably start to think about hibernation(the nights are getting much cooler now)this blog seems to have to come out of it.I blame my other interests,especially the tinkering with old equipment and building all kinds of devices.I have been scaling down in the snails department a bit,currently I have 4 tanks.
In the past months I lost all my Tigers because of some mysterious illness,and I'm not the only one.The Margies,however, are doing great.They haven't laid any eggs this year,which was strange but not unwelcome.I've also sold some of the snails,so the species I now have are:
Achatina fulica(of course),Arch.marginata ovum and suturalis, and Achatina immaculata.

Arion ater or vulgaris

2008-01-02T18:08:00.000+01:00

A long time I thought that the slugs in my garden are mostly Arion ater,but now(after seeing some pictures on the Snailtales blog)I starting to think these slugs are Arion vulgaris(lusitanicus).
As usual with slugs these are sometimes not easy to tell apart because of the similar coloration.
I did see a few small black Arion aters though yesterday.

Escape from snailcatraz

2007-12-04T20:40:00.001+01:00

When I was watching TV the other night but my eyes got attracted by something shiny on the wall.Immediately I saw that it was a slug trail,which can mean only one thing:one of the yellow slugs had escaped.After a careful searching of the area I came to the conclusion that the escape from the tank has been (so far) successful.
The other slug is still in the tank.I've noticed grayish markings on the body,so it seems that it is Limax flavus after all.

Yellow slug:part II

2007-11-25T01:18:00.000+01:00

Awhile back I wrote about the yellow Limacid slug I found in one of my tanks.And today I saw number 2!So this could mean that they are in fact not albino forms after all,and make the identification easier.All I need to do then is type in the Google search box:yellow limacid slug and up comes the answer.Well.....if only it was that easy.There is,however,a Limax species which is called the Yellow Slug(Limax flavus)but this has usually darker markings on the body and bluish tentacles.
The search continues...........

New Margie clan arrived from Scotland

2007-11-02T17:05:00.001+01:00

Today I received four new Archachatina marginata ovum from Scotland which arrived safely after a journey of 12 days(!).Just in time it was too,as I was leaving in a hour for a short trip to the USA.
For now they will share a tank with the reticulata's,remaining Brixton Margie and fulica's.
Pictures will follow later.

"banana" slug

2007-10-17T22:45:00.000+02:00

This yellow slug has been living in the Tiger snails tank for awhile now.I never put it in there so it probably hitched a ride on some greens I put in.I haven't found out the species yet,the breathing hole is located in the second half of the mantle which means it belongs to the Limacidae family.It could possibly be an albino form,slugs of this colour are usually not found in my area.

Margie R.I.P

2007-10-16T21:11:00.000+02:00

Well....the biggest Margie died last night,its weight was only 277 grams.As there wasn't any sign of illness I think it must have been it's age.I got him last August from Brixton Market in London.
The other,remaining,one is still healthy,but sealed up at the moment.

Snail worries

2007-10-10T23:00:00.000+02:00

My biggest Archachatina marginata ovum,a Brixton-market rescue from last year,is not doing great at the moment.It keeps losing weight fast:from a healthy 500 grams,to 338 a few days back and now 328 grams.It's not retracted very deep so I still have hope that he'll make it.
I will keep weighing to see if there's any progress,if at all.

A trip to the Zoo,100 years ago

2007-10-09T16:40:00.000+02:00

From September 1910 comes this short letter to the director of the London Zoo.It would be interesting to know which species are referred to here.A good candidate would be Megalobulimus oblongus which is present in Trinidad.As far a I know Achatina fulica wasn't known in that area in the early 1900's.

Respect my authority!

2007-10-04T21:23:00.002+02:00

Feeding time is not always a nice and peaceful affair,sometimes slugs feel the need to show some authority.In this case the paler colored slug gets the short end of the stick and is chased away from a delicious onion.

New hatchlings.

2007-10-01T21:53:00.001+02:00

Now,I know I wrote somewhere in an earlier post about separating my Achatina fulica's,and I did.I have,however,two A.f. rodatzi and a normal fulica living together and the result is this picture.
I'll see if they turn out to be rodatzi,in which case they are more than welcome.Meanwhile I have to check their tank regularly because one batch will do nicely.
This is the way I found them all together on the tank lid.They are now to be found all over the tank.

It's not easy being a snail.

2007-09-21T20:41:00.001+02:00

A snails shell can be very badly damaged,sometimes so much so you fear for the life of the snail it self.But a snail can also show remarkable abilities to repair the damage.This Cepaea nemoralis even with almost a third of its shell destroyed managed to stay alive and started healing the missing part.

Snailmythbusters part III

2007-09-13T22:48:00.001+02:00

Snailmythbusters part III,even though it starting to look more like slug mythbusters.Anyway,a while ago a story appeared in the news that caffeine was deadly for snails and slugs.And of course the media had a field day with making up headlines like:"snails and slugs prefer decaf".The basic idea is that caffeine works as a slug repellent,not coffee as such.In fact the percentage of caffeine found in coffee grounds is so low that it won't harm slugs and snails a bit.You would need a 2 % concentration of caffeine to get any results,and I do hope your coffee doesn't contain that!
Coffee grounds are not bad for your garden though,and make,when thinly spread a good mulch.
As a slugs and snail repellent it's:Myth busted.The slugs in my garden were even attracted to it and started to eat it!A good link is :Coffee and slugs

An update.

2007-09-07T21:07:00.000+02:00

It seems that I have to do the same thing with my Achatina immaculata as what I did with my fulica's:separate them.A few days ago I removed two batches of eggs and found a batch with just hatched young snails.The problem is that immaculata's can be very persuasive when they want to reproduce.Other snails might not be too pleased with that.What I probably end up doing is put them in the converted computer monitors,of which I have quite a few still unoccupied.
The other snails in my tanks are doing well too,the young fulica's are growing fast(and need to be rehomed pretty soon),the Archachatina puylaepti I received out of Austria are now about 5 cm in shell size,the two A.reticulata's are showing new growth again,the ovum x suturalis crosses are going strong and even surprised me with one (yes that's 1)egg.
I kept it although I don't have much hope it will hatch.The other,badly growing,crosses are neither improving nor worsening.I have no idea what's going on with their growth.
Other snails.....rodatzi's looking great,they kept their shell color.
The Tigers are thriving in their tank,although it's very wet in there.Or maybe that is the reason they are doing so well.There are 17 of them,at the latest count.
Two fulica's are currently living with them,awaiting improvements on their TV-tank.

When life gives you lemons..eat them.

2007-09-02T21:50:00.001+02:00

A slugs favourite motto can be:when life gives you lemons,eat them.Or anything is edible until proven otherwise.Everybody knows how acidic lemon juice is and how it can sting your lips.But for this Arion it's just another piece of food..never mind it has a PH of 2......

A stroll in the sunshine.

2007-08-26T22:21:00.000+02:00

Slug mythbusters part II.Today in slug mythbusters we take care of the "myth" that slugs avoid the sun because it'll dry them out to quickly.Not so according to the ones in my garden,the morning is an ideal time of day for a stroll and to soak up the sun.Who knows:are our slugs adapting sooner than we humans do to this changing climate?

2007-08-23T23:36:00.001+02:00

As a slug you have many enemies in life:hedgehogs,toads,the sun and humans.Which makes it so nice if some of your fellow inhabitants of the garden make life a little bit easier.Spiders,who doesn't love them?Especially when they make a nice bridge for you so that you don't have undertake numerous stunts to cross a pile of branches.

2007-08-09T20:42:00.001+02:00

Sometimes as a snail you get sick of people calling you slow,use your name only as a bad thing.So what to do?Well this Cepaea nemoralis decided to take things in his own hands.And it wasn't an easy task either,because how do you get from the ground level all the way up behind the cardoor?In human terms that would be climbing up 90 mtrs or about 300 feet,carrying another human.
But once you reached your destination,there's the reward:traveling at about 120 km p/h or 75 mph.And that would be the same as you as human would travel at a speed of 10800 km p/h or 6750 mph.Now,here's the question : would you want to climb 90 mtrs to go 10800 km p/h?

2007-08-07T21:28:00.000+02:00

I just noticed I haven't written in the whole month of July,too busy doing other things,but from now on I'll better my ways.A good opportunity to start my small serie of SlugMythbusters.
The first one I'll start with is this one:copper will deter slugs and snails from entering your garden.The reason this is so(or not)is that they will receive a small shock when they try to crawl over a copper surface:their blood contains copper and having such moist skin creates a nice small current.
My small experiment was this:get a copper ring,place slug inside it and see what happens:will it:
A.retract when it hits the wall,and try to find another way out
B.don't move at all or
C.just crawl over the copper,thereby busting this myth

As they say,a picture tells more than a thousand words:

Hmm...yes...I call that myth busted?Next time more slug and snail myths.

2007-06-28T22:00:00.000+02:00

Last Tuesday I returned from my holiday in the US and as always there's always the concern about the welfare of your snails.Even though snails must be the easiest of animals to leave alone for about a week or so.Well this time I was away for two weeks and so were my usual snailkeepers(aka parents).Unfortunately I lost my two Megalobulimus oblongus but have no idea what my have caused their deaths.
All the other snails are doing fine.
I finally finished and populated my TV-tank,two adult fulica's and three of their offspring are now housed there.The tank contains a glass tray with coir,two pieces of cork bark,a layer of oakleaves,an artificial plant and a few Privet branches,some of them in a glass container.
Also it is lighted by an old aquarium light which I think will also take care of providing the heat,but I have to check the temperature to see how that works in practice.

2007-06-03T21:38:00.001+02:00

It's not easy being blue,at least when you are a woodlouse.Because that means you're infected with an iridovirus and have a very short life span.I have quite a lot of these infected woodlice in my main Achatina fulica tank,but I just read that this virus seems more present in wet surroundings,and the fulica tank is pretty wet.
I had the idea of marking a few of these blue woodlice and then see how long they survive.

In the same tank I saw a few newly hatched fulica's crawling around.Have to separate this group of snails pretty soon if I don't want to be overrun with fulica's.
The other young fulica's are doing very well,there are seven of them which look all very similar in appearance.The biggest one is now about 2 cm.
Other breeding news:the immaculata's are mating again,so it's quite possible I have to separate them as well.

2007-05-28T23:46:00.000+02:00

Sometimes it's great to have a chunk of your shell missing,you can scope out your surroundings
very easily.This is one of the Margies I rescued from Brixton last year.

2007-05-03T23:24:00.000+02:00

It seems that I jinxed myself in the last post by saying there were no eggs in the tanks.Yesterday I noticed some young snails crawling around in the fulica rodatzi tank.They are not unwelcome though as I'm curious how many of these will turn out to be real rodatzi.
Usually my gaining snails is closely connected with losing others.In this case it's my oldest Tiger,Diarmuid,who I found dead in the tank yesterday.It was the last of 3 Tigers which i bought in february(I think)of 2004.He wasn't retracted and there were no signs of illness.
All the other snails are doing and growing well in general.The Austrian Archachatina's are still not very active but one.They will be rehoused this coming weekend to one of the monitorariums.The old fishtank they are now in will probably be retired,either to be rebuilt or to be scrapped altogether.

2007-04-22T01:06:00.000+02:00

Most of my snails have been very active lately,including the immaculata's,which after a resting period of a few months,start showing new shellgrowth again.The only snails I haven't seen much of lately are the new arrivals from Austria.I will rehouse these probably,they can be the new inhabitants of the tanks i'm building at the moment.These are modified monitors and computers like the one on the photo,which is currently being build.
As of now there are no eggs in any of the tanks(that I'm aware of).

2007-03-22T20:57:00.000+01:00

Today my snailpopulation got expanded with the arrivals of 6 Archachatina's from Austria.Three are A.puylaepti and the other three are A.degneri.For now they've found their new home in the tank that houses the two Margies I rescued from Brixton last year
Both of which are very inactive,hopefully the arrival of the youngsters will give them more energy.
My iredalei which has been retracted for awhile now is beyond hope I'm afraid.
All the weight is basically just the shell,the body itself is hardly visible.
This was one of my oldest snails,together with my Diarmuid the Achatina achatina who is still going strong.I have him for about 3 years now I guess.
The other snails are doing fine,some of my immaculata's have a habit of hibernating for a long time,even cracking the seal in the aperture won't make them come out.

2007-01-23T21:47:00.001+01:00

Just to keep this blog a bit up-to-date,many of my snails are taking it easy at the moment.The semi-adult Margies are started to get active again.Fulica's are always going crawling around,that is,if they are not hanging of the lid that is.Reticulata's having some kind of resting period,the immaculata's spend most of their time being buried,the young ones are always active however.
One of the rescued Margies from Brixton,the biggest at over 500 gr.,has been pretty active for his doing eating a lot of cuttle -bone.
In the Tiger-tank there's always one adult becoming active at night doing his regular round which takes him through the corkbark tunnel.
I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of two Megalobulimus oblongus from Trinidad(via England)which should arrive within a few days.

2006-11-08T19:54:00.000+01:00

My snailpopulation keeps growing,about two weeks ago I noticed 4 young Achatina immaculata's in the tank.They already were pretty big(for newly hatch snails that is)so I assume they spend a longer time under the soil than the fulica's did.They were much smaller.In the days following the discovery the number of young immaculata's kept growing slowly,till there was some sort of population explosion and now there are probably over a hundred.
They are growing fast and the biggest are now 1 cm.I'll have to give them their own tank soon,there is an empty one waiting for them.
The young Tiger snails are growing well too,I've sold quite a bit of them already,the rest of them will stay in the tank and probably be sold next spring.

2006-10-04T23:23:00.000+02:00

About a week ago I discovered littly dots on the walls and lid of my Achatina fulica tank,which turned out to be,you guessed it,young snails.Now I don't recommend anybody who has fulica's to let them breed,because you'll find yourself suddenly with about a hundred of them on average.
The reason I did let them get away with it is that my fulica's have questionable parentage.The parents where being kept in a mixed tank with possibly Achatina albopicta and another species.
They turned out to be quite a mixed bunch themselves:two have reddish apexes,one of them has a really light brown shell and another one has a real large and wide bodywhorl.So I'm pretty curious how the young snails turn out to be.After this it's checking for eggs again.
The young Achatina achatina are growing well too,the biggest ones are now over 1 cm .Further reproduction news:the Achatina immaculata keep mating and have seen eggs within three of them.One of them actually laid a few eggs while hanging on the side of the tank but these looked infertile.
Sadly I last one of the Margies from Brixton,within a week of getting it,but,unfortunatly that is the risk you take when saving these snails.The other two are still doing fine and are starting to show some new growth.

2006-08-23T20:09:00.000+02:00

Just got back from a short break which I spent in England.Shortly before I left one of my A.achatina's(Tigers) laid a new batch of eggs.Guess it would've been laid around the 14th,right at the back wall of the tank,where its hard to get to.I decided to leave them in the tank anyway and let the young snails stay in there for awhile.The eggs just started hatching,I've seen a few young Tigers crawl around the tank already.
In England I bought three A.marginata ovums at Brixton market,which seem to be doing well so far.Also I got three young Tigers,one about 3 cm,the other two about 2 cm from a friend.They share the tank with the other Tigers.

2006-08-01T22:37:00.000+02:00

It has been a long time since I last wrote in this blog.Not much has happened really,although the Achatina reticulata that was retracted didn't make it.The rest of the snails are doing well,the four badly growing Archachatina marginata's that I had seperated have been doing average to great.One seems to be on its way to catching up with his bigger siblings,another one is showing good signs of growth,but the other two keep on struggling.
I've been setting up a new tank for my "smithi"s"which now seem to be a form of immaculata.They are doing well and growing rapidly,their old tank will become the fulica tank.

2006-05-24T20:40:00.000+02:00

I have measured and weighed my young Archachatina marginata ovum x suturalis snails for the first time.There's a bit of difference between one half of the group and the other.The largest ones weigh 54,46,42 and 26 grams with a shell length of 69,64,65 and 53 mms.The smallest ones weigh:
17,11,15 and 13 grams with a shell length of 41,36,43 and 35 mms.The first two of the small group are from the same batch as the large group.
I have now split them up and gave the smaller snails their own tank in the hope that they will catch up with their bigger siblings.
The rest of the snails are doing good and growing well.There is,however,one reticulata which is retracted deeply but comes out now and then so I still have hope its going to pull through.

2006-05-19T21:06:00.000+02:00

A while ago I went back to the place where I found the Thrush's anvil in Lelystad,to do more research into the shells around it.Had a hard time finding it but came across a bigger anvil with hundreds of shells.Most of them seemed pretty fresh but it's not impossible that there were some shells from last year among them.
I did an inventory of all (well almost)the shells on there and this was the result:
Cornu aspersum 84 (20 %)
Arianta arbustorum 61 (13 %)
Cepaea nemoralis dark unbanded 73 (15 %)
Cepaea nemoralis yellow banded 211 (52 %)
This is pretty consistent with the snailpopulation in that area,most of the snails are yellow banded Cepaea nemoralis.So there isn't really any evidence yet of the Thrush eating more banded Cepaea's around this time of year.
I'll go back later this year and see if the amount of unbanded Cepaea's is larger,as research into preying habits of Thrushes has suggested.

2006-04-26T21:33:00.000+02:00

Pomatia paradise:Last weekend I went to a nature reserve in the north of The Netherlands which is situated near the coast.Walking along a path that leads to the entrance of the reserve I spotted a Helix pomatia in somebodies garden and a bit later a second one.These were the only ones I could find so thought that the owners probably released them in their garden.
Later in the woods I saw another one aestivating on a tree.And soon I noticed dozens of Helix pomatia between leaves,moss,grass and on trees.They were doing very well in that area:I only found about 6 empty shells on a total of what must be close to 100 snails.
Strangely enough I also found them between pine needles,not exactly prime pomatia habitat.
The reason for their success is probably lack of predators,they were so big a Thrush would have difficulty holding it.What also surprised me was the lack of other snails:I couldn't find a single Cornu aspersum and relatively few Cepaea's and Arianta's and mostly empty shells.
Their range extended outside the forest,I saw some pomatia's in parks and gardens in the nearby village.

2006-04-15T23:14:00.000+02:00

Today I went for a drive(you will get used to having a car in front of your house,and after awhile wouldn't want to be without it).First destination was to pick up a tank I bought of a dutch Ebay-site.The good thing about this one is that it has a sloping bottom with tap at the end.This tank will become the new raintank,I just have to add some things to make it work.
After the tank was safely stowed in my car I drove to a naturereserve in the middle of The Netherlands(close to the IJsselmeer,if you want to look it up).It is quite a famous place for birds,for example Spoonbills(but I didnt see them),but ofcourse I went there to look for snails.
Didn't found too many of them really,the long winter meant a bit of a slow (no pun intended)start for them.I did found a nice specimen of Limax maximus,and a lone one at that.
The next stop wasn't a success either so decided to drive a bit on till I found a potentially good habitat for snails:rough vegitation with some trees (willow)and large shrubs(Elderberry).
Plenty of snails there,although be it mainly three species:Arianta arbustorum,Cepaea nemoralis and Cornu aspersum.Also a large number of empty shells,many times outnumbering the snails which I found alive.
They were probably the result of a number of years.What I also found was a Songthrush's anvil,most of the shells on there where Cepaea nemoralis both yellow and brownish ones.There where a few Cornu aspersum shells,all caught when they were hibernating and two Arianta arbustorums.

2006-03-12T18:02:00.000+01:00

Yes I know I haven't been very active this year on the blog front but not a lot has happened.All snails are doing well but there hasn't been any eggs yet.
The background I made a while ago still holds up pretty good.Only thing is :one of my reticulata's has taken a liking to it and ate quite a big amount of it,polysterene and all.Not sure what to do about it,it doesn't cause any ill effects to the snail:the faeces is pure polysterene .The little grotto I made is its favourite,you could say the snail is doing some extension work.
Also the other snails in the tank like to hide in there,only the iredalei prefers to stay outside.
I've prepared a tank for the big Margies who now share a tank with the Tigers and doing very well.But they were meant only to stay in there for the wintertime,so I guess its time to move them into a tank of their own again.It's the old rain-tank(see blog about that tank sometime last year),se how they like that.

2006-01-12T20:07:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I lost one of my Achatina iredalei's,which leaves me with one.
The rest of the snails are doing fine,but for a reticulata which lost quite a bit of weight (12 gr),so that one is now under careful observation.
In the reticulata tank I've made a new background with polysterene,just have to see if they won't eat the concrete coating on it.I think it looks really good..
The pot on the right is a heater/humidifier,inside is a lightbulb.A cheap and effective method of tank heating.

2005-12-09T20:56:00.000+01:00

Even though it's December it doesn't keep some snails from mating.Last weekend i noticed my remaining adult Helix pomatia mating with a Helix lucorum.I don't know if it was succesfull or not but there's no doubt these two species can crossbreed.They are very similar anatomically.
Haven't seen any crossbreeds from nature yet but thats because they rarely live together.
The result,if any,will probably be a light brownish coloured animal with light brown shell.I'm curious if there will be any spiral banding.

2005-11-17T05:48:00.000+01:00

Last week,the 8th,I found new eggs in the Margie tank,once again there are 7,laid by the suturalis.I saw it being in that spot for a few days.After a day they have turned yellow which usually means they are fertile.Let's see how long till they hatch,the tank is not heated.
I've changed the soil in that same tank to coir,and also thinned out the woodlice population by releasing them.
Today one of my fulica's,Andy died,he was retracting in his shell for the last days and trying to get him out didn't help.Cause of death I don't know,it wasn't a prolonged illness.Cases like this sometimes makes one wonder about their snailkeeping abilities,although I know these things happen.
More bad news: most of my Applesnails died,just a few brave survivors are left.I noticed there are mite-like creatures swimming in the water,but can mites swim underwater?
Now I'm thinking of converting the fishtank into a snailtank........although I do like my Applesnails..

2005-10-31T05:35:00.000+01:00

The snail population keeps growing:last week I received four Achatina fulica's which might have some albopicta blood in them,but we'll have to see that when they are a little bit bigger.For now the are in the raintank,where they seem to do well.
Not much else is going on,the big Margies are as inactive as ever,although tonight I saw one crawling on the side of the tank.The young Margies are growing steadily and so do the ventricosa's.
Tonight I gave them all some Pumpkin,because of Halloween,see how they like that.

2005-10-10T05:46:00.000+02:00

I now discovered 10 young iredalei's,they will go in the rain-tank when they are a bit bigger.I'll probably separate the parents soon,because I dont want to be overrun with babies.
One of the Helix pomatia's died on friday,could be old age,now I have one adult and about 4 young ones.The other ones which were moved to another tank all died.

2005-10-03T16:55:00.000+02:00

More snails have arrived on friday,this time from Italy,they are Achatina smithi about 6 of them.
For now they share the mixed tank with the panthera's,iradelei's,margie and African slugs(which keep themselves hidden).
Also two Archachatina ventricosa came from England which share a tank with the young Margies.
In that same tank I discovered two tiny young snails which I suspect are from one of the iredalei's.I looked for more but so far there are only two of them.

2005-09-23T06:35:00.000+02:00

Last saterday i noticed one of my Helix pomatia's showing a big interest in one of the margie's.For hours i tried to get him to mate by to no avail.After awhile it decided to rest for a bit but then started the whole process from the beginning.Alas this time too there was no success.The two other Margies came to have a look to see what was going on,all this attention however failed to distract the pomatia.

After a night sleeping with the object of his obsession the pomatia left to find his luck elsewhere the next morning.

2005-09-13T06:20:00.000+02:00

Rehousing.My reticulata's are growing so fast I decided to give them a new tank.Hopefully they can stay in there for awhile.I also transferred Andy the Fulica from the somewhat crowded natives tank to there.The baby pomatia's and Cepaea's have their own tank now,they share that one with the Arianta arbustorums.
The Helix lucorums are more active now I keep their tank more humid.I lost 4 out of 10 in the last weeks.
Six of the seven eggs from the Brixton Margies have now hatched,I have put them in the big tank that houses my young Margies.They have been marked to dinstinguish them from the first batch of young Margies.

2005-09-01T06:23:00.000+02:00

The snailroom is finally taking shape,I think I have room for 10-12 tanks but I'll aim at 10.Right now I have 6 tanks occupied one of which is in the livingroom and not part of the 10 mentioned.Of the 7 eggs I found of the Margies two have hatched,the first one on the 24th.That makes it the first young Margie born of the snails rescued from Brixton market.Not much else has happened since the last post,all the snails are doing fine.Although I lost one of the Helix lucorums,they are not very active as snails go.I hardly see them moving around,don't know if it's the species or something thats not right in the set up.

2005-08-25T07:34:00.000+02:00

Last friday Colin the fulica died,he didn't came out of his shell anymore,only moved about a bit inside it.I don't think he ate anything at least since I came back from my holiday on August 6th.His weight dropped from around 90 grams to 67 shortly before he died.This leaves me with only one fulica,Andy,who is growing fine.All the other snails are doing good too,the reticulata's are at the moment the fastest growing ones,but my two Brixton Margies are putting on plenty of new shell growth.
One of the margie eggs i found (of 7)hatched today.

2005-08-17T05:00:00.000+02:00

Well for some reason my password didn't seem to work anymore but the old blog can be seen here:http://thesnailwatcher.blogspot.com/
All I need to do is catch up then.
Last weekend I went in search of the only colony of Helix lucorum living in The Netherlands and perhaps Northern Europe.I knew they are living in a grassy area on an industrial estate.
Luckily there isn't much green in general in those industrial places so I found the place quickly.
Firstly I found an empty shell which was unlike a Helix aspersa so I knew I was on the right track.A little bit further a found the first live ones.
In total i found 34 alive snails and 11 empty shells.
I've taken a few snails home to try to breed them because they live in the type of area that can be scheduled for redevelopment anytime.
They have a big tank for themselves and have settled in nicely.
The other snails are doing fine in general:the Brixton snails are doing great,pomatia babies are growing pretty fast,reticulata's gained a lot of new growth,iredalei's are growing steadily,panthera's too,Andy the fulica is still going strong but Colin the fulica is poorly.Often withdrawn pretty far in his shell.Every day I try to get him to come out and sometimes he does,but I don't think he has eaten in awhile.Pretty concerned about his health.