Hi,

I am new to this forum, so please be understanding if I seem to be worrying about nothing.

I have had a GALS for about six months and it has grown from a baby to having a shell about three inches long. I cleaned its tank out at the weekend and gave it a bath (cleaned the shell as it was covered in substrate and snail faeces from burrowing). Just today my wife noticed that the snail's shell seemed to be peeling or flaking on the top in the area of the largest part of the shell. The snail regularly has cuttlefish bone to rasp on and has water in the vivarium. It is misted on a daily basis and the food is changed for fresh every two days? Can anyone explain why the shell may be flaking?

Thank you in advance.

Brian.

Post Script: I have had a closer look at the shell and it doesn't appear to be cracked or broken, so I don't think the snail has had a fall. The snail is eating well and moving quite contentedly. It was happy to be handled as always, so no change in personality.

the largest part of the shell as in the opening? or the round bit in the middle?


my snails all have flaky bits, so its not much to worry about, just keep an eye on it and make sure he has constant acces to cuttlefish as you're doing

Do you just have the one snail?

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Metame,

Thanks for your advice.

When I talk about the largest part of the shell, I am talking about the uppermost part of the largest whorl above the opening.

Yes, we only have the one snail. We got it from my son's nursery as they had a number of breeding age adults and then suddenly had a lot of babies. Having seen the prolific breeding rate of these snails and the fact that they are hemaphrodites and cannot be separated by sex, we decided to only take the one home. As I have the possiblity of being away from home for long periods of time, my wife does not want to have to destroy eggs which are live when I am away.

I did a fair bit of research before we took on the snail and we bought a small, plastic rock cave (the snail is now too large to get into the cave, unfortunately), and a shallow water dish for it to drink from, but having looked further into snails living in isolation, I understand that they need to be kept 'entertained'. Is it a good idea to put items such as thick twigs to climb up into a vivarium to keep the snail entertained, or is this asking for trouble with the risk of falling and damaging its shell?

Regards,

Brian.

i only asked what you meant by the largest part of the shall, for i have knows the opening to be the largest part in some snails and if it was that that were the case, then it could have been an issue with the making of the shell. It sounds like its just old shell flaking, he should be fine! similarly, i asked if he was alone as if he hadnt have been and you were worried about him, it could have been prudent to separate him form any others as they can crawl over each other and may cause damage that way

With regards to the stick idea, snails climb anyway, he will probably be climbing the sides of the tank? I think it would be a good idea to give him some sticks also, as long as he ha a decent amount of substrate on the base of the tank and that the sticks are fixed firmly so that they cannot fall once he is on them. I think the best think to do is just try different things out and see what suits you and your snail

Also, with regards to killing the eggs if you had had more than one, the widely accepted and humane way is bagging them up and putting them in the freezer for a few hours (just incase you did decide on getting another ) then your wife wouldnt exactly be actively destroying them!

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They are fine to climb so long as there is nothing tough to fall on. Avoid real rocks and clay plant pots. Stick to plastic etc. Also, having a tank with smaller height but wider is a good way of reducing the fall damage. Mine have fallen off the ceiling a few times but no permanent damage! They occaisionally get chips around the opening of their shells but they are easily repaired with cuttlefish supply.

The flaking is probably nothing to worry about. Snails often shed and re-form their shells to get the required shape.

Sounds like your snail is well looked after!

Perhaps your snail is a bit too warm? They do need to be warm but if their surroundings are too hot the snail can grow too quickly and its shell will start to look in poor condition. Also, eggshells are a better source of calcium than cuttlefish because cuttlefish has a higher salt content.

It could be many things, Depends what species, some just tend to have rougher shells. Could be due to growing too quickly.

Also if it gets much much worse and starts to create a kind of wave pattern it could be related to some snails are unable to absorb calcium, like a deficiency. So no matter how much cuttlefish or calcium block they are rasping on its not being used by their bodies.


They need vitamin D i think it is, so sunlight seems to help with that problem.

One more thing, you could simply get anotehr species- They can't mate. I have an albino reticulata, albino fuli and an iredalei.

When you use egg shells as the calcium supply, how do you prepare them?

I buy a pack of 6 free-range organic eggs from the supermarket and then crack each one open. The contents goes into a bowl which I then use for cooking or, if I don't need it, I put it in a bag in the bin. I then rinse out each eggshell under a running tap of cold water. I leave the tap running for a few seconds until the "froth" from the eggshell subsides. I then place these rinsed out halves of eggshell in the snail centre. With practice, it is relatively easy to crack an egg open in half; this is best because the snails like to climb inside these empty halves. The snails get the calcium from inside the eggshell.