Achatina snail: a lot is known about its content at home. However, we advise you to carefully read our recommendations so that your achatina avoids disease and has a beautiful appearance.
Many people probably thought that it would be nice to have a pet. But just which one should you choose?
After all, keeping a pet brings with it not only the pleasure of contemplating your pet and of communicating with it, but also a number of problems that are sometimes quite noticeable. For example, a dog should be regularly walked several times a day, making sure that the interval between walking is fairly uniform.
In addition, some pets absorb a really huge amount of food, such as all kinds of mastiffs or clog the entire house with wool, such as Caucasian shepherds, which the owners decided to keep right in the apartment (and which, by the way, do not eat much less than a mastiff). Cat molt can also cause a lot of trouble. Hamsters can be disturbed by their rather specific smell, and the parrots that fly out of the cage with food and small feathers.
If such problems are indeed problems, and the desire to have a pet does not disappear, then perhaps the best solution would be to establish a molluskaria, that is, an aquarium in which the snail will live.
Giant Achatina is a land gastropod mollusk from a subclass of pulmonary snails.So, let's get acquainted with, perhaps, the most famous among snail lovers gastropod inhabitant of mollusks - a giant African snail Achatina.
The giant Achatina is famous not only for its enormous size, but also for its remarkable intelligence for the mollusk.
Her mind is stricken in the fact that she develops conditioned reflexes of all known species.
The optimal temperature for the content of Achatina will be 25 degrees Celsius. This mollusk is quite thermophilic, which is quite natural for a native of Africa, but it is quite successfully taking root in the houses located in our latitudes. The size of which Achatina will reach will depend mainly on her health, which is determined for the most part by the conditions in which she will be kept and how she will be fed.
In Europe, including Russia, where the survival of Achatina in nature is impossible, they are often kept as pets.Interestingly, the largest representative of this species, which is listed in the Guinness Book of Records, weighed almost six hundred grams. For comparison, in our much more severe climate, the largest snails weigh no more than one hundred and thirty grams. However, despite its enormous size by snug standards, African giant Achatina move at the same speed as grape snails - about one centimeter per minute.
The giant African Achatina is a hermaphrodite, however, her prevailing pass changes with age: young ones have a masculine pass, while older specimens become, so to speak, more and more “feminine”. For this reason, if only very large specimens live in the molluskaria, its masonry ceases to develop. To correct this undesirable situation, small specimens should be planted in large snails. If this is done, the molluskarius again wants to bring posterity and things will go as before, when the giants were not so large. By the way, snail eggs very much resemble chicken, and if they are thrown onto the table, they will bounce a little.
It is listed among the 100 most invasive species.For snails to develop safely, they need chalk. At the same time, it is desirable that this be a natural chalk, and not one that can be bought at office supply stores, since the latter contains a lot of chemicals harmful to the body of a snail. True, some owners of snails prefer it, citing the fact that ordinary school chalk snails will be nibbled on, while they will very quickly (by coherent standards) spread the powder over the entire molluskaria floor. Nevertheless, such a choice cannot be considered reasonable, because, despite all the amenities, school chalk remains harmful.
In natural habitats, snails eat what they "fall from the sky." As a rule, these are various fruits and other plant foods, but these can be animal corpses. True, Achatins do not attack each other and do not eat their offspring. In any case, there were no cases of cannibalism among them.
But if grape snails are planted in them, it will be possible to notice that they disappear somewhere: once in the cohabitants of their distant giant relatives, grape snails very often serve as a good meal for Achatina. If you drop your legs into the molluskarium to the Achatina, then you can then see that they will be eaten to the very bones. And if you get carried away by this process, then the internal "decoration" of the molluskaria will begin to resemble a cannibal cave.
The color of the sink depends on the environment and diet.True, despite all of the above, Achatina are not so bloodthirsty. With great pleasure they will absorb plant foods, such as carrots and dandelions. But these snails do not absorb cabbage so readily: to make this dish more desirable for snails, cabbage will need to be put in boiling water for two or three minutes.
Giant Achatina should be kept, like other snails, in a molluskaria with high humidity. For this purpose, the molluskarium should be covered with glass, and a cup of water should be placed inside it. Snails breed in the ground, so five to six centimeters of well-washed sand should be poured into the bottom of the molluskaria. Moreover, the sand should be wet. Before putting sand into the molluskarium, it should not only be washed, but also rinsed with boiling water to clean it from parasites and wash excess salt.
Achatina feed on products of plant origin, preferring soft or decaying parts of plants.In addition, the owner of the cochlea must carefully ensure that the soil does not sour in a wet molluskaria. In order to provide better control over humidity, you can make a drain and put a drain pan for the outflow of excess water. However, with or without drainage, but at least once every six months, sand will need to be changed.
Gigantic Achatina love to dig into the ground and they lay their eggs there. Hatched babies practically do not differ from their parents and at first lead an underground lifestyle. Dig them and pull them to the surface should not be. They will be able to get to the surface on their own when the time comes. If it becomes too cold or too dry in the snail’s standards, gastropods will go “underground” burrowing into the ground. If the living conditions become completely unbearable, the Achatina will climb into their shells and close with a film, which serves as a kind of snail door. In this case, you should not be afraid: the snails did not die, but simply went into hibernation.
Since snails require calcium carbonate to build a shell, they can eat soil, scrape rock fragments with a radula.In order for the sleepy pets to wake up and again begin to please their owner, they (together with the house, of course) should be thrown into warm water, at a temperature of about thirty degrees. Then soon the snails will again show their bright faces. But on the smell of cheese, they do "run away" at all speeds, because this food puts them in a state of ecstasy.
Soaked in water Hercules, they swallow directly whole. However, in spite of such omnivorousness, they should not be fed too much food, because at this temperature and humidity it will quickly begin to mold and mites, flies and worms will appear in the molluskaria. And although they do not interfere with the snails themselves and are even perceived as an additional dessert, it is unlikely that anyone will be happy with the molluskarius, which is soiled by insects.
Achatina are hermaphrodites, that is, each individual has both male and female genital organs.By the way, Achatina in those countries where they live is often used by local residents for food. True, consumers of this product argue that, unlike grape snails, Achatina smell pretty good for land and damp. In addition, even drugs are made from achatin, because their mucus has bactericidal properties. Some, not too serious wounds can be cured fairly quickly if these gastropod giants are attached to them.
The giant African Achatina possesses neither hearing nor voice. Achatina has eyes, but they play a secondary role, since the main means of communication with Achatina is carried out very differently, through the organs of the so-called "chemical instinct."
Achatina reach puberty in 6-15 months.If five large individuals and a large number of small snails are laid on the table, then after a while it will be possible to see how five heaps form on the table and small snails gather around large individuals. It is possible that the reason for this is some kindred feelings that make the baby stay close to his parents. Although it is possible that this is an expression of their "chemical attraction", as small individuals eat up different substances for larger ones. It is for this reason that newborns will not be placed in sterile conditions, since they, being deprived of the vital products of adults, will simply die.
African giant snails have another feature: they are able to feel the lighting not only with their eyes, but also with their bodies. This is due to the fact that the body of Achatina has photosensitive cells. Therefore, these mollusks do not approve of too bright a light. For this reason, owners of Achatina should remember that when they warm the molluskari using an incandescent lamp, they make sure that it does not light up too brightly. To do this, the molluskarium needs to be shielded or thrown on its bottom shards or halves of pots. Snails can find refuge in them, otherwise they will just have to go underground and hide there for a long time. Therefore, shielding the lamp is still more reasonable. In addition, shielding will not allow the wall of the molluskaria to heat up so much that Achatina is burned.
Newborn Achatina at first eat the remnants of their own eggs.For some people, snails cause not very pleasant feelings, and even disgust. As experience shows, this is nothing more than the first reaction. If you get to know these animals better, then disgust will disappear, and the original point of view will be replaced by sympathy. What bribes snails is its unusualness.
After some time, when the owner of the molluskariya gains some experience, he begins to slowly understand his pets and get great pleasure from talking with these unusual pets and from watching them.
Achatines lead mainly a nocturnal lifestyle, although in humid weather they can creep out during the day.Small children are especially fond of watching snails. Most of all they are delighted to see how, in a snail crawling along the molluskaria’s wall, one wave of muscle contractions runs through the leg after another. Some may even put a gastropod on their arm and let it crawl along it. I must say that after the first surprise, the feeling of a snail crawling over the body causes great pleasure. Moreover, this is a very useful activity, because snail mucus contains a huge amount of useful substances.
Snails feed using a tongue seated with horny spikes. In its roughness, it roughly corresponds to the language of the cat. And if you put a snail on your hand, then it can even tickle it its owner, without causing him any harm. But at the same time, using this “grater” of its own, the snail can easily cope even with not so soft vegetables like cabbage, beets and carrots.
It has been proven that Achatina has a long-term memory: they can remember everything that happened within one hour.Perhaps all are familiar with the sensory organs of the snail. It is not difficult to notice that Achatina has four horns, of which two are longer on the crown and two are shorter at the bottom. If you look closely, you can see that at the very end of the length of a pair of horns there are four black dots, which are photosensitive points, which provide Achatina vision.
Small horns of Achatina are organs of smell and taste. The lung of the cochlea is a fold of skin pierced by capillaries. As for the snail house, this is not only a shelter, but also the protection of important organs. For example, in the last curl is the snail's liver. The owner of a snail can learn a lot of interesting things about his darling. All that he needs for this is a loving attitude to his pets and attentiveness.
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jRC8cFhMaQ
