Helix Aspersa (lots of them!) *update*

[_Jersey Girl]

The continuing chronicles of an amateur snail breeder...

So this morning I was about to clean out the fish bowl that houses my Helix when I spied about 6 clusters of little "tapioca's" hanging from the top of the plastic wrap that covers the top of the bowl and realized that my Helix has been at it again!

We have babies! They are so darn cute!

:-)

I have about 12 more new baby snails and as I was digging through the dirt (don't ask about the cleaning procedure, just picture me picking through bits of lettuce with a magnifying glass to locate any snails clinging to the layers of lettuce--disgusting yet, necessary) I found about 12 more eggs! The eggs look like little off white pearls.

Since I wrote about the first batch, one of the two adults well, died. So the remaining adult is now reproducing on it's own. The little scamp! I couldn't find any of it's love darts, but now I'm going to establish a snail nursery to hatch the new eggs.

Life is good!

:-)

[_moksha]

I think the snail as a hobby is more interesting than raising New Jersey's most common pet:

[_Jersey Girl]

The continuing chronicles of an amateur snail breeder...

So this morning I was about to clean out the fish bowl that houses my Helix when I spied about 6 clusters of little "tapioca's" hanging from the top of the plastic wrap that covers the top of the bowl and realized that my Helix has been at it again!

We have babies! They are so darn cute!

:-)

I have about 12 more new baby snails and as I was digging through the dirt (don't ask about the cleaning procedure, just picture me picking through bits of lettuce with a magnifying glass to locate any snails clinging to the layers of lettuce--disgusting yet, necessary) I found about 12 more eggs! The eggs look like little off white pearls.

Since I wrote about the first batch, one of the two adults well, died. So the remaining adult is now reproducing on it's own. The little scamp! I couldn't find any of it's love darts, but now I'm going to establish a snail nursery to hatch the new eggs.

Life is good!

:-)

I'm just using this thread now to keep track of the going's on in the fish bowl and the fish bowl annex. So...I just ransacked the habitat and buried in the soil was yet another cluster of snail eggs! There must be about 20 of them.

My Helix has obviously found something that he/she could do well.

;-)

[_bcspace]

Godzilla's arms are too short to do anything about it.

[_Jersey Girl]

Greetings Helix lovers! (Yes, I know I'm talking to myself) More to report in the continuing saga of my journey with snails.

On May 10th, while cleaning and misting the fish bowl, the rather large Helix (Alpha Helix as I call her/him/it) was found on the "floor" of the fish bowl seemingly planted in the dirt. I tried tipping it over and it was firmly planted. I gave it a little "rain" and left it alone.

It was laying eggs!

The next morning I discovered an egg cluster that was placed right near the glass on the fish bowl so that you can see it from the outside as if it were a viewing window.

Thank you Alpha Helix!

In 2-4 weeks, there should be babies!

:-D

[_Dr. Shades]

Pix or it didn't happen.

[_Jersey Girl]

Pix or it didn't happen.

If I could post my own photos here, I'd do it. They look like this:

[_Dr. Shades]

So, considering how many eggs you've found over the months, your fishbowl must be positively OVERFLOWING with adult snails by now. Haven't they started giving you the creeps yet?

[_Jersey Girl]

So, considering how many eggs you've found over the months, your fishbowl must be positively OVERFLOWING with adult snails by now. Haven't they started giving you the creeps yet?

How dare you mock the babies! No, they don't give me "the creeps". You must have missed the part of this thread about the fish bowl "annex". There are two other fish bowls now that house the extended clan, though not all of the offspring have survived. There is a delicate balance in keeping the habitat moist, but not too moist. They can dry out and die, drown and die and some of them are escape artists that I find outside the bowls and unfortunately, dead.

One batch of eggs never hatched. :-(

I may also have sacrificed a few on the lettuce that I take out of the bowls when I clean it, though I usually go through the leaves with a magnifying glass especially when there are new babies in there.

So, no, they don't give me the creeps. I love them, they're easy to maintain and children love handling, observing and caring for them.

I'm going to make them a playground soon. The snails, not the children.

:-)

[_Jersey Girl]

Snail Races