Photo Gallery :: A snail on a turtle!

[slider_keeper]

So I went to stare at Toku doing what he does. Well he comes to the front of the tank and long and behold...... There is a snail on his shell! Sorry the pic is crappy, I need a better camera:(
Look just above his head, slightly to the right between his scutes. That little brown dot is a snail!

[steve]

Do you have other snails in there? Those little guys reproduce like crazy.

[slider_keeper]

Yep, there are probably 15 that I can see, who knows how many I can't see, haha. The snails don't bother me, if anything when they get to a particular size Toku eats them, I haven't see a good size one in a while so he is getting snacks. Being they are a part of slider's diet, its a win win.

[slider_keeper]

I just never seen one hitching a ride on a turtles shell. I found it fascinating.

[steve]

I'd see them floating around when I had an anacharis tank... guess snails are pretty lazy

[slider_keeper]

Lol yeah I think you might be right, it's a fast way to get from one side of the tank to the other lol

[slider_keeper]

Like taking the subway in Manhattan, with no crowds!

[apondfortimmy]

I recently tried snails in my turtles' tanks and ... well, I'll tell you the sad story here.

Baby Timmy's 20 gallon tank was getting a little ... greenish, so I thought, "Oh, a couple of my small snails would make short work of that!" I gently picked up six of them and placed them into the tank. They, of course, floated on the top for a bit but I knew they'd end up at the bottom and along the sides. I went to attend to the other turtles in the garage.

Ten minutes into whatever I was doing it hit me - Baby Timmy eats anything that's floating on the top of his water. I ran back inside shouting "CRAP CRAP CRAP DANG IT CRAP" and ... all the snails were gone but one that had made it to the bottom. I literally facepalmed and stood there for a minute like that.

I'm sorry, small snails. Good thing I still have 400 of you.


(Love the picture - found the snail up there! It's tiny!)

[slider_keeper]

Yeah that would suck! I actually had a epiphany; "How will I find every snail in the tank when I eventually move Toku to his big tank?!" It a problem I will be happy to have, because it means I finally got Toku a tank that will be like a small pond all to himself and a few fish and tons of snails.