Hi, I've been keeping GALS successfully for years and am glad you like them too! They don't need any soil until they're ready to lay eggs and so I don't put dishes of soil in there when the snails are small. Also, I made the switch to from cuttlefish to eggshells a few years back and my snails have done much better getting the calcium form eggshells. Apparently the salt content of cuttlefish bone is high which is detrimental to the snails's health.