It was time to sprinkle some more Sluggo into this tank, and I noticed this live snail with his foot-body completely inside an almost empty shell. I presume he was forced to such extreme measures of eating his buddy, alive or dead, because I don't have any Macodes petola jewel orchids or precious blossoms currently happening in there.
(Compare size to Sluggo pellets bottom right.)
Is this common or aberrant snail behavior?
I was also surprised that close up these little black snails weren't really all black after all.
i was wondering the same thing. cause you can kill the snails with dry ice but it doesnt take care of the eggs. this would be a good way to control them though.
Lil 2 liter bottle caps or similarly small items filled with beer and changed out every few days will drastically reduce the snail population....and allow your frogs eggs much better chance of surviving. Did this for over a year with darklands pumilo, never a problem.
I have had a couple types of snails in my tanks, mostly common slugs and they never really bothered frogs or eggs but this type pictured I have seen eat eggs out of their jelly mass and I am also conviced they have eaten tads out of brom axils.
I had a pair of Colons that had these snails in heir tank and literally saw a couple of them eating eggs out of a deposited clutch and then have tads disappear that i had seen in a couple of axils but did not witness the tads disappearence. I broke down that tank and after cleaning thoroughly baked the cork bark @300 for about 40 minutes. I reused he cork bark and after 60+ days have not seen a reappearence of the snails. Whether these snails are carnivorous or omnivorous I do not know but you should definately rid your tank of them if you intend to breed the frogs.
In my experience, when you apply sluggo you will see less snail/slug damage, and they will be less visible, but as soon as you quit applying it they reappear, even full grown adults, so you will need to continue to apply it indefinitely.
-mark
Do not use any product containing Metaldehyde. That is nasty stuff.
I have found Sluggo effective on slugs and snails. I expect if I used it on a regular basis, like every couple of weeks, I could break the breeding cycle and eliminate the snails from this tank completely. Unfortunately, I'm more apt to wait until I notice a problem.
Several people have used it and posted that there was no apparent effect on their animals.
So IF this is infact true, as this is just a speculation on Marks part( it could have been a number of things) why not just put the sluggo in small bottle caps around the tank.
That way the sluggs still can get to them, but since they are not directly touching the ground the springs will have a harder time getting to them.
I will give the sluggo a try putting it in little bottle caps and see what happens.
In retrospect, I'm not sure that the sluggo was responsible. I will say however, that putting it in bottle caps won't prevent the springs from getting into it.
-mark
True but, I think it will help to deter them from getting at it. Since they are not directly touching the ground, and therefore not QUITE as easy to get to.
Especially since they cannot sense it as well, they would have to come out of cover to get at it, up the rim of the cap..... i think it will help.
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