Caracolus Marginella
28 Tuesday Feb 2012
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in28 Tuesday Feb 2012
Posted Pets & Animals, Photograph
in13 Monday Feb 2012
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Yet more eggs, but I have not disposed of these as the first batch don’t seem to have come to anything apart from a crumbling mess, so I kept these ones. Only 20, so I don’t hold much hope for them to be honest, and doubt that this is the best time of year for breeding them. It is cold, although the tank is a nice temperature I think the night time lul in extra heat is killing any life within the eggs.
On Saturday we went to a few pet shops in Liverpool and found GALS on sale in both, one was selling them for £1, and the other for £9. I would not mind, but the ones for £9 really did look like they needed a little moisture as the shells where old looking and sort of dull and ragged. The ones for £1 were only little ones, and looked in good health, however, neither had the ones I wanted, as I want a different breed of GALS than the ones I have currently. So the search goes on.
06 Monday Feb 2012
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After speaking to an expert on GALS, I decided to commit genocide and have taken the new 206 eggs and placed them in the deep-freeze in order to destroy them. If they all hatched I would be over ran, and in light of the fact that they cannot be released into the wild, and I doubt I wouldn’t be able to sell, or pass them all on, it is the sensible thing to do. However, all is not lost as the first batch that was laid on new years day still may hatch, although there are more and more broken eggs, that seem to have crumbled, probably due to nothing being in them. No babies have been seen, but I am still hoping that one or two survive.
05 Sunday Feb 2012
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Another 80 eggs laid by one of the GALS, so a total of 317 in the “incubator”. It really does amaze me as to where the hell the eggs are stored within the snail before laying. Todays eggs look a little green, but that being due to them not drying out as yet. I wonder it they have a yolk within them like chicken eggs and the likes.
More details as and when, and if they eggs finally hatch.
04 Saturday Feb 2012
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inConditions must great in my snail vivarium as they seem to be breeding again. I already had a clutch of eggs which was at a count of 111. Yes slightly less than the original count as some of the eggs crumbled. Today I removed another clutch of eggs, this count was 126. However, it does not stop there. Whilst I was giving the tank a little clean, one of the snails was buried, which means only one thing, more eggs. I lifted the tank and had a look from below, and yes, another clutch of eggs. S/he is still with the eggs, so s/he may be still laying, but as soon as the coast it clear, I will be removing them and doing a count, but so far 237.
One of the things I have to now take into account is the fact that as they are not native to this country, it is illegal to let them out into the wild so I have read. This will mean I have three choices, 1 to keep them all, 2 to sell them, or 3 to euthanise them at the egg stage. The last choice will mean putting the eggs in the deep freeze, which will kill any life within and thus solve what seems to be a thriving population. So far I am not sure what to do. I read on a site that the hatch rate of the eggs are quite poor, but on inspection I see little colours through the egg shell and can see there is a wee snails in them, so who knows.
01 Sunday Jan 2012
Posted Pets & Animals
inI have 4 Giant African Land Snails (GALS), one of which is very active and plods about the tank showing himself off, and when I take him out he is happy to crawl(?) along my hand and is quite content.
An hour ago I looked at the tank which I do all the time and saw this sight. I removed them and placed them in a tank of their own, and counted them, all 116 of them. Now it is a wait for about 14 days and see how many hatch. I just hope that I am there to see at least one of them pop out. I’ll be posting the progress here as it happens.