The oldest fossil mollusks, which lived approximately 570 million years ago, belonged to gastropods, monoplacophorans and bivalves. The shells of armored and cephalopod mollusks that lived about 500 million years ago are also preserved in fossil form. Spadefoot animals appeared at least 400 million years ago. Sulcate bellies, which do not have shells, are unknown in fossil form. It is believed that the ancestors of mollusks appeared on Earth approximately 620 million years ago. The picture shows the shells of extinct cephalopods.

Outside its homeland, Achatina was first noticed in 1803 on the island of Mauritius, then, somewhere in 1821, on the island of Reunion. Malacologist Benson brought Achatina from the island of Mauritius to India and released it into the garden in 1847. People generously scattered this interesting species throughout the tropical countries of the Old World.

Role in nature

There used to be a belief that Achatina soup was a cure for tuberculosis, so it was specially brought to India, Singapore, California, and many tropical islands.

In the USA, Achatina is a national disaster. Somehow several snails found their way to Florida, and in just a year the snails multiplied so much that they destroyed everything in the state - crops, bark on trees, and even plaster on houses. Since then, all Achatina that end up in the USA are given the death penalty, and lovers of these animals are given 5 years in prison.

Fortunately, in Russia Achatina does not survive as a savage, and keeping them in captivity is not dangerous.

Achatina plays a useful role in nature. They are not picky in their choice of food and eat decomposing plant remains, animal excrement, and various sewage, that is, they are cleaners. They can even "remove" rotting trees.

Only young people harm cultivated plants. She feasts on banana buds, tubers and fresh leaves.

The nervous system of snails consists of 5 pairs of nerve ganglia, or ganglia: cerebral, leg, or pedal, pleural, visceral and parietal. The ganglia are connected by nerve cords: the same - by the so-called commissures, and the opposite - by connectives.

Snails see very poorly, only at close range, but their sense of smell does not fail them. They can sense food up to two meters away.

Of the sense organs, in addition to the eyes on the front pair of tentacles of the head and a pair of head tentacles, which have the function of organs of touch, snails have developed balance organs - a pair of statocysts. Statocysts are closed vesicles, the walls of which are lined with ciliated and sensory cells, and the cavity contains a liquid in which one large or many small grains of calcium carbonate float. The pressure that calcium carbonate grains exert on one or another section of the vesicle wall at different positions of the cochlea allows it to orient itself in space. Snails also have a chemical sense organ - the osphradium, which lies at the base of the gill and serves to sample water entering the mantle cavity. The second pair of head tentacles in land snails is the olfactory organ. In addition, the skin of snails is rich in sensitive cells.

Achatina are quite smart creatures. They can remember the location of food or their favorite vacation spot. They also remember who is familiar to them and who is not.

Height

They live up to 5-6 and even 10 years. They grow throughout their life, but after the first two years of life the growth rate slows down. Feeding also affects growth. The less often you feed your snail, the slower it will grow. I kept my separate records and measured my Achatina every week. I'll add my results.

Food

Nutrition is the most important stage of a living organism; with nutrition, all living beings receive energy. Snails have a very muscular tongue, which they use to scrape off food. Achatina eats almost everything except pickled, spicy, salty, sweet, smoked and fried. It is very important to eat the right food, this applies not only to people, but also to animals. As you may have guessed, I will tell you about healthy food for snails. An integral part is vitamins, namely calcium. It is needed for the sink, or rather to strengthen it. It is found in many products. You can also count on vitamins purchased at the pharmacy (calcide). It is not advisable to keep food on the ground, because... it starts to mold. Place a small bowl under the food. Do not let the food dry out; although snails are not people, they like to eat fresh food much more than dried food. Water must be present in the terrarium. You should spray the walls and soil with water at least once a day, and if you want to give the snail more, just buy or make a bath yourself, change and clean the drinking bowl regularly. Achatina will be able not only to drink from it, but also to bathe in it. Only the depth should be such that the snail does not choke and the bath must be secured so that the water does not spill, causing great inconvenience to the snail. Feed your snail as often as possible. Do not be afraid that the snail will “burst” from overeating, like fish. No, Achatina stops eating as soon as she considers it necessary and will not eat anything that could cause poisoning. Here is a list of what you can feed your snail.

Fruits: apples, pears, apricots, peaches, pineapple, avocado, bananas, strawberries, wild strawberries, cherries, mangoes, papaya, kiwi, plums, cherry plums, grapes, watermelon and melon.

On the ventral side there is a massive, muscular leg with a wide lower surface called the sole. The characteristic method of movement for most snails is slow sliding along the substrate on the sole of the foot, and the movement itself is carried out thanks to waves of contraction running along the sole of the foot from back to front. The abundant mucus secreted by the skin softens friction and facilitates sliding on a hard substrate. In snails, the back of the leg bears a special horny or calcified cap on the upper surface, and when the snail hides in the shell, the cap closes the mouth. When a snail moves, it feels the way with a pair of head tentacles.

Reproduction

Achatina fulicas are hermaphrodites with cross-fertilization. They reach sexual maturity at 7 months. Mating games that occur with dancing and contact with the genitals can last a very long time, up to several hours. Fertilization itself occurs when Achatina touches the genitals, which when folded look like white dots above the head on the right side of the body. The “pregnancy” period lasts one to two weeks, after which each Achatina lays 100 - 400 white round eggs in a hole in the ground. Depending on the environmental temperature, after 1-3 weeks small Achatina, from three to five mm long, appear from the snail eggs. There are also viviparous species of Achatina.

Care

Let's start with the terrarium, it can be either glass or plastic, at least 10 liters. There must be a lid with holes for ventilation so that the snails do not crawl out of the house. The thickness of the soil depends on the snail itself; the soil should cover the snail like a blanket. Purchased soil of Azaleas, Begonias, Cacti, universal and others will be suitable. Before adding soil, you need to heat the soil in a microwave or oven to kill the larvae of fruit flies and other insects, because they cause inconvenience to the snails. A soil made from stones is not required, because... Having fallen from the lid, damage to the shell from pebbles cannot be avoided, or it will scratch it when trying to dig into the ground. You can put some branch in the terrarium; snails love to climb.

It is also very important that the feeder and water bowl are clean, because no one would like to eat and drink from dirty dishes. Therefore, rinse it about once every day or two. General cleaning includes cleaning the walls, dishes and, in some cases, changing the soil. Wash the walls at least once a week, but change the soil about once a month. It is also advisable to remove snail excrement from the terrarium; do this every day or every other day.

And now washing the Achatina themselves. Even though they are land animals, they really like it under a stream of water on the owner’s palm! The water should not be very hot and not very cold, slightly warm, room temperature. You can remove soil from the snail shell with the soft side of a regular whisk. Or just wash off the dirt with your hands. You can massage the snail under water, just rub its back with light movements under a stream of water. If the snail is not afraid, it will stretch out, and if it is a coward, then when touched it will immediately be drawn into the shell.

Snail diseases

The most common problem is damage to the sink. A damaged sink can be repaired using epoxy glue. If the shell is damaged near the mouth, the snail itself will quickly repair it. If the damage is closer to the top, you will have to repair the sink. Dry epoxy glue is not toxic to snails, but while it dries, the snail must be kept in a separate dry terrarium, avoiding the glue from getting on the body. The sink must be dry and clean while working with glue. Snails are also intermediate hosts, so be careful.

Observations

It’s funny that if you feed Achatina with brightly colored vegetables (for example, varieties of sweet peppers), its shell, as it grows, takes on the shade of that very vegetable. This way you can adjust the appearance of the sink.

My advice on content

Growth is significantly influenced by environmental factors, so try to create the best possible conditions for Achatina. Don't forget to take care of it, the animal is not as independent an animal as you think.

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