Hi there,
Good to have you around. Check out the previous blog here on how it started.
“It’s what you sow that multiplies, not what you keep in the barn."
— Adrian Rogers
Starting out with the little I had proved worthy. In less than two days, the first set of eggs came in. It takes around 3 days or more to fertilize the eggs after mating, so I believe the snails must have mated prior to arrival.
That being said, it showed the environment was favorable and they were (most likely) enjoying their stay (in captivity).
It was time to try out the next rightful thing to do; incubate the eggs in a separate enclosure. In their natural environment, eggs would be laid few inches deep in the soil or in areas the snail feel has the right condition and then left without further care till it hatches. That won't be proper in their new environment since the activities would perhaps damage the eggs and also, I need to take account of what's what.
I had just one hutch, so the incubation was done in perforated and transparent plastic wares. About 1 inch of soil, the eggs and another layer of soil to cover it up slightly was added in the container, covered and kept aside. The soil is being checked twice a week to be sure the humidity level is good enough. Last image in this post shows my first attempt at incubating. Those 8 eggs are now 25 days, and should hatch in less than 2 weeks now if the conditions were good enough. If it goes otherwise, I would take it as a learning process and work on improving.
The first two weeks had me watching their every actions like a vigilante. I just had to satisfy a lot of my curious intents. How do they eat something as strong as unripe pawpaw fruits? Where does their excreta comes through? How do they mate (read about love darts and needed to see in live action)? Where do the eggs gets out of them? and so much more.
Seeing, they say, is believing. They are really cool creatures and the time I spend with them has always been worthwhile.
gif - 12x speed
Thanks for gliding with me on this slimy trail ...🐌
Period: 19th to 30th June 2022.
All images and gifs are taken with Samsung A20s, edited using Canva and phone's Gallery editor.
