Hello Brian, Welcome to Conch-L. You may be somewhat unique to our group,
hence the slow response by others (or they may all be at the COA meeting or
out at the beach). I have tried to keep snails at various times in
terrestrial settings (a little good dirt, a little moss and some wood).
They seem to do just fine as long as they are herbivores and you can provide
food they like to eat and keep it moist. Most of the ones I have tried
[Allogona townsendiana (Lea,1838), Monadenia fidelis (Gray, 1834) and Helix
aspersa Muller,1774] do just fine eating what I have in the garden that
snails and slugs attack anyway (lettuce, kale, basil, spinach, Hostas ) or
leftovers from the refrigerator. I give them choices and see what they eat
first and most. I know that Helix aspersa breeds very nicely in my compost
bins near my house.
I haven't tried to breed the snails in captivity so I can't help you there.
But there are people that raise snails for eating (escargot) and to provide
snails for biological control of pest species [Rumina decollata (Linnaeus,
1758) to control Helix aspersa in orchards in the Southwest U.S. for
example].
Keeping carnivorous snails with herbivores would present problems for the
herbivores. Around here Haplotrema vancouverensis (Lea, 1839) eats the
herbivores. I live in Olympia, WA. So I'm familiar with local species.
I'd be interested in hearing what species you are working with and your
successes and challenges.
Good luck, Bert Bartleson
-----Original Message-----
From: Conchologists of America List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Brian Matt
Sent: Sunday, June 27, 2004 2:41 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: brief introduction
Hi, my name is Brian, and I ran across this list while looking up
information on terrestrial snail breeders. I collect shells, but only the
ones I find on the beach. (I did do the live collecting thing once, and I
just couldn't really stomache it.)
Anyway, now I keep a few fish tanks and a couple of paludariums, and
became interested in trying to add terrestrial snails to the paludariums.
However, it's very difficult to find any information about them, except for
the shells. There are several breeders of Giant African snails, but those
are invasive and, well, giant. So I've been questing for breeders that may
have other terrestrial snail varieties available for purchase.
I'm kind of surprised that the shells of terrestrial gastropods are
readily available, but the animals themselves are not to be found.
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