Part 3: Behavior

Part 3: Behavior

                Alright, now to the fun part! Mystery Snail Behavior! In a word these guys are Charming. Everything they do makes you smile or outright laugh. These snails are very active. They interact with each other and fish around them and they seem to find all kinds of ways to play and amuse themselves. They climb to the top of the tank and stretch out a little snorkel like appendage that they use to breath. It is a very comical sight when they try to do this from the bottom of the tank, stretching as far as they can go like they are convinced they can reach.

               They have two long antennae that come out right above their eyes and a shorter set on the end of their noses. The ones on the nose often remind me of the Chinese dragon paintings with the two long whiskers at the end of the dragons snout. Gives them an exotic look. When they hunker down for a snooze or decided to cruise the glass looking for algae they curl both sets of antennae around their eyes.

Escargo with her whiskers and antennae fully extended.

Bully with his whiskers and antennae curled around his eyes as he scrapes the glass for algae.

                They have the ability to float or sink at will. I have observed them cruising happily along the tank floor, only to suddenly float to the surface, where they reach out with their foot and grab the glass. They often climb to the top then launch themselves off of the glass with their foot completely flattened like a parachute. I am convinced that they do this for fun. One of my snails, Apollo, especially seems to take extreme joy out of jumping off of various high places and gliding down. He repeatedly climbs to the top of a plant or the tank and dives off. One afternoon my daughter and I spent a good twenty minutes laughing ourselves silly at Apollo's antics.
               He would climb the big plastic wood ornament in the center of the tank and leap off into the bubble stream from the bubble bar and float and spin in circles among the bubbles until he fell out. Then he would climb up and do it again. One thing is for sure, these guys have personality!

Bully, foot extended, parachuting down from the top of the tank.

             

They also aren't shy.

Apollo likes to lick skin. It tickles. Feels like a very teeny tiny cat tongue. Their foot is shockingly soft. Feels like wet velvet over your skin.

Apollo on my daughters hand. She says he gives her ticklers. lol

Apollo cruisin' on my hand. Gee I must taste really good!

               Yup, in or out of the water these guys aren't shy. You have to be really careful about handling them out of the water though. They really don't understand gravity AT ALL! And they WILL drop right onto the floor and crack their shells! Which usually means a long slow death!

Apollo's and Escargo's offspring. Can't you see the resemblance?  She has her father's strong golden shell and her mother's dark foot.

               

              They also seem to play with each other.

Ingot the smaller gold mystery snail taking a ride on Apollo. (They do this a lot.)

See what Bully is doing? A very interesting thing about these guys is their ability to literally "stand up" on their foot. They will often lift themselves "in mid-air" so to speak. Or should I say "mid-water"? And stand on nothing but the very tip of their foot. Then they stretch up on tippy toe (pun intended) and grab something, either a plant or decoration, with the top of their foot and manage to pull themselves up.

Bully on top of Apollo, and Ingot leaving in a huff.

            Here is a video of Apollo demonstrating their surprising dexterity. Not expected for a snail.

              When they aren't playing, or parachuting down from the tank. They are either sleeping, eating, or breeding. These guys eat a lot and mate a lot. When they sleep they look like they are dead. Half sucked into their shells with their little trapdoor loosely open. Sometimes an eye or antenna loosely hanging out. They also can spend an entire day or more just napping. For whatever reason, it is really hard to tell if they are dead or alive when they do this. I always have to give them a poke and watch and see if they suck back in their shells just to make sure they are still alive.
             Now feeding time is very fun to watch. These guys have a terrific sense of smell. You can drop either floating food or something that sinks and suddenly all the snails wake up and start cruising toward the food. They pile on top of each other on the floor of the tank or climb and somehow manage to snatch floating food and hold it with their foot and eat.

Next Page: Part 4: Anatomy