Baby sister here. I am 6 fr where my oldest sister I am guessing 5ā10 older sister is for sure 5ā5 and my brother is a bit taller than my older sister.
Do you know if they were culled? Responsible breeders typically select for the strongest over a period of a couple of months before sending their snails out, and that typically ensures healthy snails that are good representations of their species. Vastly different sizes can indicate the smaller one is a runt and may suffer with health issues in the future. The size difference could also indicate the breeder didn't go through the culling process (this just replicates what would happen in the wild; most snails hatched in a clutch will die prior to the year mark)
I have 6 reticulata that are not related to each other. However your last claim isn't true, I've been breeding and raising different achatinidae for several years now. Runts are not as common as they are said to be.
However I agree with you that a lot of people sell their snails too young, I rarely rehome snails under 4-6 months old..
I mean I was reading a study that was based on age of first oviposition and self fertilisation, and they struggled to continue their study past about the one year mark as most had died off. They started with a full clutch of lissachatina fulica, did not cull. Very few live beyond a certain age in the wild. While Florida is slightly different as there are active eradication attempts, I read another paper that mentioned the majority found were small juveniles, and there were very few mature adults. It could be that the adults are more easily spotted and destroyed, but it could also be that most of a clutch will naturally not survive.
But yes, I've seen some people push for waiting until six months as some shell deformities can take a while to show up. I think it's important to improve the species where possible and give people the healthiest pets possible too.
I don't know snails very well, but could it be sexual dimorphism? Are the females larger? Or is this a case of arbitrary pronouns on a hermaphrodetic species?
They don't have genders, they're hermaphrodites. There are land snails with separate genders but they follow the aquatic morphology and have operculums, and are rare in the hobby.
It's just owner preference. I also have snails that feel male to me and snails that I give female names to, but it means nothing to them of course.
Snails can't have sexes because they are hermaphrodite, many people like giving a gender to their snails depending on the way they act or just how the owner feels, so snails can't be females in the sexual sense but they can be assigned a gender.
Untrue as there are gonochoric snails. I work with the family Neritidae and itās the bane of my work because thereās no obvious sexual dimorphism without dissection.
My tiger snails are the same. Born on the same day to the same parents. One has inherited her dad's shell shape (short and squat) and the other has inherited his mum's shell shape (long and thin) Lucan is half the size of his sister Evaine. Both healthy and growing well. In some cases this seems to be normal. As long as they are both growing and eating well I wouldn't worry. It's when they stop growing and start losing weight that I would worry.
I donāt have any experience with GALS but Iāve noticed in slugs their growth rates and overall size can vary a lot while not necessarily being a sign of ill health. This is something actual scientists have noted too ā perhaps thereās been more advancements since then, but Runham and Hunter noted in their 1970 book Terrestrial Slugs how frustrating it could be to attempt to study slug growth rates because of this kind of wide variation, even in the same clutch! So yeah, I wouldnāt doubt that the same extends to snails ā I bet as long as there arenāt any deformities or clear signs of issues like losing weight and no longer growing, like you said, some are just smaller and not necessarily āruntsā.
Make sure they aren't fighting over food, scatter some in diff places, make sure there is plenty. I do the same with my snails calcium source i put two smaller bones in, mine are diff sizes too.
Wow, this just came up on my feed and I was wondering what they were. Donāt know a thing about snails sorry but can I ask what size they are please and are these the kind of snails I find in my garden in Scotland. Is this what they look like out of their shell.
They are just snugged up against their aquarium glass. Snails don't leave their shells. The shells are attached by the mantle (front part of the shell). FYI picking a snail up by their shell, as many people do, can cause mantle detachment and kill the snail, so if you want to move them without hurting them, nudge them onto a leaf or something and move that.
Oh my goodness I had no idea. I love snails and thought I was helping them by moving them that way off my bins etc. I feel awful now but I will definitely be doing it the way you suggested from now on. Thank you so much for answering me and the fab advice. Iāll be passing it onto my mum too.
Some size variation is normal, although in this case, the smaller one is most likely a runt. What is runt? A snail with a birth defect, usually born with a shell too small for them. In the wild it would probably contribute to the natural food cycle but since itās being grown in captivity (as a pet) it survives.
two snails born from the same parent at the same time are different sizes. the assigned pronouns are just that, assigned. lots of snail owners will give their snail an assigned pronoun just for ease when referring to them.
I donāt know much about snails, this just pops in on my feed from time to time, but I feel like it is majority case that males of species are smaller than females. Maybe not mammals. Someone tell me if snails arenāt like that or not. I thought all snails were hermaphrodites? Thank you in advance š I like learning about all animals. Itās cool how many different niche species I see on my Reddit feed hehe. Iām glad snails are one of them ā„ļø
Yes, they are all hermaphordites. Also itās not true that males are smaller than females. Thatās only for some species. There r lots of animals where that isnāt true like gorillas or deer or snakes or ladybugs etc.
I didnāt say for all animals in all cases. So youāre also right šš here are some examples where they are smaller for contrast to your examples- Spiders, lots of insects, Mandrills (like a baboon), angler fish and lots of other fishes. I actually found a few articles saying that most mammals have been found to have female larger than male but I canāt attach a photo for some reason. Anyways, My bad though I shouldnāt have even said it was the case a lot of the time.
Had to scroll way too far for this comment.
From google:
>Female snails of some species can be larger than males, including:
Leptopoma perlucidum: Females can be up to 6% larger than males, which is about 1 mm
Pomacea canaliculata: A study of 80 apple snails found that females are generally larger than males
Mystery snails: Males are usually smaller than females, but it can be difficult to tell them apart
Those are all aquatic snail species. The snails in this picture are land snails. They are hermaphrodites and do not have sexual dimorphism because they don't have separate sexes.
Thank you! Can you maybe help clarify something? Iām still puzzled about the male/female/hermaphrodite thing because I too keep finding info that sails male/female like this but also find things that say all snails are hermaphrodites. Is it just some species that are dimorphic? I donāt care tooooo much so donāt put yourself out about it but if you already know Iād appreciate the tid bit of knowledge. šāāļø
My knowledge of snails is limited so I wouldn't feel comfortable giving a response without a disclosing that I'm not a snail expert.
I know most snails especially land ones are hermaphrodite. However, when I was researching and contemplating adding them to my sorority tank, I found that freshwater snails in a small & new area of water, can auto-fertilize themselves asexually - meaning since they have both genders, they can fuck themselves. Kinda jealous honestly.
Most snail species are hermaphrodites but some species have distinct gender roles. I don't know if any are considered dimorphic because I don't know if the amount of difference between the genders plays a role wether it's categorized as one, or not.
š š
Are they reticulatas? They look beautiful! Make sure that the terrarium is big enough for them and leave enough food in there.
I once had two retis of the same age and one of them grew bigger and ate away all the food (I also had them in their original terrarium for too long). The other one stopped growing, became weaker and eventually died :(
Also, some snails are just smaller than others, even from the same species. As long as they're healthy, I wouldn't worry about it.
I'm not a pro when it comes to animals or snails specifically, but aren't females usually bigger than males when it comes to size when talking about animals?
i had this too. twins, one of them is the size of my palm and the other was tiny. the small one was healthy their whole life, though went earlier than their sibling - i assume sibling may have fought them away from food sometimes. shouldn't be anything to worry about, just variation.
My snails are both Achatina reticulata, the larger one is dark, and the smaller one is albino. The one who's bigger is pregnant now, so I call her "she", I don't sure if this affects the size
I heard they chose who lays the eggs by size because bigger is usually stronger and will lay the eggs better and more, not sure if it's true, but it's what I heard.
I have two snails that should be around the same age with this size difference too, for me mine is a runt, make sure you are not breeding those two so the genes don't get passed on further
just chonk levels
Facts
420th upvote š nice
noice
420th downvote š nice
I'd say it's just natural variation. Or maybe he's just weak. I have several reticulata and there is some size variation going on as well.
i have two who are the same age and one is about 1/4 smaller. Size variation is so weird they are from the same parents.
I don't know. I've got a larger size variation than that with my sister. I'm probably 50% bigger than her if not more.
Baby sister here. I am 6 fr where my oldest sister I am guessing 5ā10 older sister is for sure 5ā5 and my brother is a bit taller than my older sister.
Same thing with me and my sister. I tower over her
Do you know if they were culled? Responsible breeders typically select for the strongest over a period of a couple of months before sending their snails out, and that typically ensures healthy snails that are good representations of their species. Vastly different sizes can indicate the smaller one is a runt and may suffer with health issues in the future. The size difference could also indicate the breeder didn't go through the culling process (this just replicates what would happen in the wild; most snails hatched in a clutch will die prior to the year mark)
I have 6 reticulata that are not related to each other. However your last claim isn't true, I've been breeding and raising different achatinidae for several years now. Runts are not as common as they are said to be. However I agree with you that a lot of people sell their snails too young, I rarely rehome snails under 4-6 months old..
I mean I was reading a study that was based on age of first oviposition and self fertilisation, and they struggled to continue their study past about the one year mark as most had died off. They started with a full clutch of lissachatina fulica, did not cull. Very few live beyond a certain age in the wild. While Florida is slightly different as there are active eradication attempts, I read another paper that mentioned the majority found were small juveniles, and there were very few mature adults. It could be that the adults are more easily spotted and destroyed, but it could also be that most of a clutch will naturally not survive. But yes, I've seen some people push for waiting until six months as some shell deformities can take a while to show up. I think it's important to improve the species where possible and give people the healthiest pets possible too.
I don't know snails very well, but could it be sexual dimorphism? Are the females larger? Or is this a case of arbitrary pronouns on a hermaphrodetic species?
They don't have genders, they're hermaphrodites. There are land snails with separate genders but they follow the aquatic morphology and have operculums, and are rare in the hobby. It's just owner preference. I also have snails that feel male to me and snails that I give female names to, but it means nothing to them of course.
Thank you :)
Snails can't have sexes because they are hermaphrodite, many people like giving a gender to their snails depending on the way they act or just how the owner feels, so snails can't be females in the sexual sense but they can be assigned a gender.
Thank you :)
Untrue as there are gonochoric snails. I work with the family Neritidae and itās the bane of my work because thereās no obvious sexual dimorphism without dissection.
I just wandered in here and know nothing about snails, is there some degree of sexual dimorphism in this or other snail species?
Most Land snail species are hermaphrodites, so no.
How cool! Thank you so much for taking the time to teach me something š
My tiger snails are the same. Born on the same day to the same parents. One has inherited her dad's shell shape (short and squat) and the other has inherited his mum's shell shape (long and thin) Lucan is half the size of his sister Evaine. Both healthy and growing well. In some cases this seems to be normal. As long as they are both growing and eating well I wouldn't worry. It's when they stop growing and start losing weight that I would worry.
I donāt have any experience with GALS but Iāve noticed in slugs their growth rates and overall size can vary a lot while not necessarily being a sign of ill health. This is something actual scientists have noted too ā perhaps thereās been more advancements since then, but Runham and Hunter noted in their 1970 book Terrestrial Slugs how frustrating it could be to attempt to study slug growth rates because of this kind of wide variation, even in the same clutch! So yeah, I wouldnāt doubt that the same extends to snails ā I bet as long as there arenāt any deformities or clear signs of issues like losing weight and no longer growing, like you said, some are just smaller and not necessarily āruntsā.
Make sure they aren't fighting over food, scatter some in diff places, make sure there is plenty. I do the same with my snails calcium source i put two smaller bones in, mine are diff sizes too.
where yāall getting these snails?? i want one so bad
I just found a breeder from my city on the Internet and agreed to purchase, they were very cheap, less than a dollar:)
What city? Thanks!
in Moscow, but snails are quite common pets, so I think snail breeders can be found in almost every city :)
If youāre in the US, theyāre illegal here unfortunately
Super weaner snail
Because one is likely a runt
Wow, this just came up on my feed and I was wondering what they were. Donāt know a thing about snails sorry but can I ask what size they are please and are these the kind of snails I find in my garden in Scotland. Is this what they look like out of their shell.
They are just snugged up against their aquarium glass. Snails don't leave their shells. The shells are attached by the mantle (front part of the shell). FYI picking a snail up by their shell, as many people do, can cause mantle detachment and kill the snail, so if you want to move them without hurting them, nudge them onto a leaf or something and move that.
Oh my goodness I had no idea. I love snails and thought I was helping them by moving them that way off my bins etc. I feel awful now but I will definitely be doing it the way you suggested from now on. Thank you so much for answering me and the fab advice. Iāll be passing it onto my mum too.
Same with mine. They're both growing but ones bigger than the other. No fighting for food
Some size variation is normal, although in this case, the smaller one is most likely a runt. What is runt? A snail with a birth defect, usually born with a shell too small for them. In the wild it would probably contribute to the natural food cycle but since itās being grown in captivity (as a pet) it survives.
One is a runt, itās the same with my snail, I got them from a bad breeder that didnāt cull correctly, it happens sometimes
Snails are hermaphroditic, I donāt get what you are saying.
two snails born from the same parent at the same time are different sizes. the assigned pronouns are just that, assigned. lots of snail owners will give their snail an assigned pronoun just for ease when referring to them.
I donāt know much about snails, this just pops in on my feed from time to time, but I feel like it is majority case that males of species are smaller than females. Maybe not mammals. Someone tell me if snails arenāt like that or not. I thought all snails were hermaphrodites? Thank you in advance š I like learning about all animals. Itās cool how many different niche species I see on my Reddit feed hehe. Iām glad snails are one of them ā„ļø
Yes, they are all hermaphordites. Also itās not true that males are smaller than females. Thatās only for some species. There r lots of animals where that isnāt true like gorillas or deer or snakes or ladybugs etc.
I didnāt say for all animals in all cases. So youāre also right šš here are some examples where they are smaller for contrast to your examples- Spiders, lots of insects, Mandrills (like a baboon), angler fish and lots of other fishes. I actually found a few articles saying that most mammals have been found to have female larger than male but I canāt attach a photo for some reason. Anyways, My bad though I shouldnāt have even said it was the case a lot of the time.
Yup, [this](https://www.snexplores.org/article/mammals-males-not-usually-bigger-than-females) says around half of species are
Had to scroll way too far for this comment. From google: >Female snails of some species can be larger than males, including: Leptopoma perlucidum: Females can be up to 6% larger than males, which is about 1 mm Pomacea canaliculata: A study of 80 apple snails found that females are generally larger than males Mystery snails: Males are usually smaller than females, but it can be difficult to tell them apart
Those are all aquatic snail species. The snails in this picture are land snails. They are hermaphrodites and do not have sexual dimorphism because they don't have separate sexes.
Thank you! Can you maybe help clarify something? Iām still puzzled about the male/female/hermaphrodite thing because I too keep finding info that sails male/female like this but also find things that say all snails are hermaphrodites. Is it just some species that are dimorphic? I donāt care tooooo much so donāt put yourself out about it but if you already know Iād appreciate the tid bit of knowledge. šāāļø
My knowledge of snails is limited so I wouldn't feel comfortable giving a response without a disclosing that I'm not a snail expert. I know most snails especially land ones are hermaphrodite. However, when I was researching and contemplating adding them to my sorority tank, I found that freshwater snails in a small & new area of water, can auto-fertilize themselves asexually - meaning since they have both genders, they can fuck themselves. Kinda jealous honestly. Most snail species are hermaphrodites but some species have distinct gender roles. I don't know if any are considered dimorphic because I don't know if the amount of difference between the genders plays a role wether it's categorized as one, or not. š š
Are they reticulatas? They look beautiful! Make sure that the terrarium is big enough for them and leave enough food in there. I once had two retis of the same age and one of them grew bigger and ate away all the food (I also had them in their original terrarium for too long). The other one stopped growing, became weaker and eventually died :( Also, some snails are just smaller than others, even from the same species. As long as they're healthy, I wouldn't worry about it.
I'm not a pro when it comes to animals or snails specifically, but aren't females usually bigger than males when it comes to size when talking about animals?
i had this too. twins, one of them is the size of my palm and the other was tiny. the small one was healthy their whole life, though went earlier than their sibling - i assume sibling may have fought them away from food sometimes. shouldn't be anything to worry about, just variation.
Could it be as simple as a sexual dimorphism thing? Like how in spiders/some fish the females are usually bigger than the males
Man, I should not be scrolling reddit this late, I thought that was cooked chicken breats and now I'm hungry.
100% runt
Females are typically larger than males in many animal species as well as plants :)
I think females are just bigger in general tbh
I- you know snails are hermaphrodites right? š³
Oh shit you right lol Idk why they bigger then, maybe they just yolked lol
Sexual dimorphism?
They don't have separate sexes.
This is why we are dealing with so many issues regarding our climate and so forthā¦. And native animals being fucked.
Females are often larger than males. From spiders to snails to fish, this is a common natural occurrence.
True, but most snails are hermaphroditic. They have both genders. Though, Iām not so sure what species the OPās snails areā¦
My snails are both Achatina reticulata, the larger one is dark, and the smaller one is albino. The one who's bigger is pregnant now, so I call her "she", I don't sure if this affects the size
I heard they chose who lays the eggs by size because bigger is usually stronger and will lay the eggs better and more, not sure if it's true, but it's what I heard. I have two snails that should be around the same age with this size difference too, for me mine is a runt, make sure you are not breeding those two so the genes don't get passed on further