Snails are one of the most interesting insects. At the same time, absolutely everyone can understand how to draw a snail, because in this, in fact, there is absolutely nothing complicated. In order to clearly explain how to draw a snail to a child, it is worth showing him this insect itself or photographs in which it is depicted. This will help the baby remember the structural features of the snail.
Before you draw a snail with a pencil in stages, you need to prepare:
one). Black handle;
2). Pencil;
3). Eraser;
4). multi-colored pencils;
5). Sheet of paper.

After all those stationery items that are listed just above are prepared, you can proceed to figure out how to draw a snail:
1. Schematically draw the body of the snail and the outlines of its house;
2. Draw the body of the insect. To draw a snail with a pencil, you must know the features of its structure, otherwise the drawing will turn out to be unrealistic. For example, it is necessary to depict a pair of antennae, as well as a couple of antennas. The edges of the body of the snail should be slightly uneven;
3. Now draw the snail's house, dividing it into separate sections;
4. Depict the surface on which the insect is crawling;
5. Outline the image with a pen. Clarify some details, such as the cells on her body and the stripes on the house;
6. After letting the drawing dry a little, erase the preliminary sketch with an eraser;
7. Of course, you can draw a snail in stages with the most ordinary pencil or pen. But the drawing will look more complete if it is still painted. For this purpose, it is not at all necessary to use colored pencils, because almost any paint will work well. For example, if you use watercolor for coloring, the drawing will turn out to be very delicate and at the same time quite realistic. Color the body of the snail completely with a light brown pencil. Then shade it a little with a red-brown tint. Then, in black tone, draw the cells on the body of the insect;
8. Shade the space under the snail with a dark blue tint. And then paint over the surface on which this insect is crawling with a light green pencil;
9. Color the snail's house. To do this, use colored pencils of various shades, ranging from brown and gray colors, and ending with green, blue and purple tones.
Now the snail drawing is completely ready! Having learned to draw this insect, you can teach this to your child!

The meadow snail is common in stagnant water bodies. The shell of the mollusk is relatively thin-walled, spirally curled, pale brownish in color with a greenish tint and three dark brown stripes. The color of the shell is variable, ranging from light to darker. The mouth of the shell, when the snail is drawn into it, is very tightly closed by a horny operculum with clearly visible concentric stripes.

The coloration of the soft parts of the lawn’s body is also remarkably beautiful: golden-brown dots are scattered on the general dark background of the skin. On the head, a lobe-shaped snout with long tentacles protrudes rather strongly forward, at the bases of which there are eyes.

The right tentacle in males, which plays the role of the copulatory apparatus, is greatly expanded and has a rounded shape. The eggs fertilized in the body of the female develop in the oviduct, in the terminal part of which, during pregnancy, embryos of later stages of development can be found. The presence of embryos of different ages in the same egg tube makes the lawn a convenient and favorite object for embryological research.

Reproduction apparently occurs throughout almost the entire year, since in spring, and in summer, and in winter, females can be found with fully developed embryos, the number of which varies from 12 to 25. life, like adults, differ from the latter in size and in the presence of conchiolin fringed outgrowths on the shell, arranged in several rows along the whorls of the shell, so that the latter acquires a hairy appearance.

Subsequently, these fringes disappear, but for some time, in young grasshoppers, spiral rows of dots are observed on the shell, corresponding to the locations of the conchiolin outgrowths. The endurance of meadow grasses to low temperatures is remarkable: tightly closing the shell with a lid and falling into a stupor. Mollusks freeze into ice without harm and come to life when favorable conditions occur.
Latin name Viviparus contectus.

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It is widely distributed in stagnant water bodies of swamps and lakes. The shell of this snail is distinguished by its thinness and spiral curls with a pale brown color, sometimes with a slight greenish tint and three brown stripes. Interestingly, the shell color of these mollusks is quite unstable. As a rule, it varies with the age of the snail. While the snail hides in the shell, its mouth is tightly closed with a lid with pronounced concentric stripes. The body of the lawn also has a rather interesting color: golden dots are scattered over the entire area on a dark background. The snail is distinguished by its blade-shaped snout with tentacles, at the base of which are the eyes.

Luzhanki are bottom mollusks, therefore, unlike coils, they do not rise to the surface of the water for the next portion of air. They are able to breathe the oxygen contained in the water. Due to this property, these snails are very demanding on water quality. At that moment, when oxygen becomes insufficient, the meadowsweet die. If you decide to breed these mollusks, you will have to constantly monitor the perfect cleanliness in the aquarium and the saturation of the water with oxygen.

It is best to keep lawns in shallow aquariums with a thick layer of soil. This is necessary so that they can burrow there, and thereby get their own food. By the way, due to the interesting color of meadowsweet, they are often confused with decorative types of snails, in particular, snails. Therefore, inexperienced aquarists are often sold at inflated prices. Although in fact they are rarely bought. Most often they simply exchange or catch themselves.

Lawn feeding

Luzhanka can be safely called an omnivorous mollusk. Burrowing into the ground, she finds her own food and does not require additional special feeding. True, sometimes you can pamper your aquarium inhabitants with fish food or calcium, which is contained in eggshells. Also, you can buy special chalk for it (to maintain the shape and hardness of the shell). In no case should you give her the usual "school" chalk, because it contains glue. Basically, snails feed on the remains of fish food, rotting plants, as well as the excrement of some of the fish. The main advantage of lawns is that they do not eat live ornamental plants, unlike other snails.

Lawn breeding

Luzhanki are dioecious snails, the embryos fully develop inside the female. Unlike most mollusks, the meadowsweet does not lay eggs, but completely bears offspring. Some hobbyists call these snails livebearers. This is a real treasure for those who study the embryonic development of the fetus. As soon as small mollusks are born, they immediately begin to lead an independent lifestyle. By the way, these aquarium inhabitants breed all year round.

Types of meadows

Luzhanki is divided into two main types:
the real one is quite large. The height of the shell can reach 4-5 centimeters. Brownish-dark color distinguishes them from other mollusks.
striped - this type of lawn is distinguished by its small size (shell height 2–4 cm). A slightly green overflow of the color of the snail gives it a special sophistication, so that it can easily be confused with a tropical type of snail.

In principle, there is no big difference between the types of meadows, as such. It just so happened that aquarists prefer to start striped clams more. Probably because they are more reminiscent of decorative tropical inhabitants, they look better against the general background of aquariums.

Water meadow snails, 2.5 out of 5 based on 2 ratings

gambusia.ru

Description

The shell is up to 4 cm long and has 5.5 to 6 whorls. The whorls are rounded and separated from each other by a distinct seam. The apex of the shell is blunt, and the umbilicus is narrow.

Spreading

The species lives in Western, Central and Eastern Europe. In Scandinavia, it has been found in southern Norway and Sweden. The viviparous meadowsweet lives in moderately flowing rivers and lakes with clear water.

Nutrition

It feeds mainly on detritus (85%), as well as higher plants (10%) and green algae (5%). Slime filaments that form at the base of the gills can filter food particles and plankton from the water. The threads of mucus are then eaten along with the detritus.

From a similar appearance Viviparus contectus differs in the top of the shell, in the viviparous lawn it is blunt, while in V. contectus she is sharp. In addition, the navel V. viviparus much narrower, almost closed.

Literature

• Peter Gloer: Die Tierwelt Deutschlands. Mollusca I Süßwassergastropoden Nord- und Mitteleuropas Bestimmungsschlüssel, Lebensweise, Verbreitung. 2. neubearb. Aufl., 327 S., ConchBooks, Hackenheim 2002 ISBN 3-925919-60-0
• Peter Glöer and Michael L. Zettler: Kommentierte Artenliste der Süßwassermollusken Deutschlands. Malakologische Abhandlungen, 23:3-36, Dresden 2005 ISSN 0070-7260

An excerpt characterizing the viviparous lawn

In his relations with Villarsky, with the princess, with the doctor, with all the people with whom he now met, there was a new feature in Pierre that deserved him the favor of all people: this recognition of the possibility of each person to think, feel and look at things in his own way; recognition of the impossibility of words to dissuade a person. This legitimate feature of every person, which previously excited and irritated Pierre, now formed the basis of the participation and interest that he took in people. The difference, sometimes a complete contradiction in the views of people with their lives and among themselves, pleased Pierre and evoked in him a mocking and meek smile.
In practical matters, Pierre suddenly now felt that he had a center of gravity, which was not there before. Previously, every money question, especially requests for money, to which he, as a very rich man, was very often subjected, led him into hopeless unrest and bewilderment. "To give or not to give?" he asked himself. “I have, and he needs. But others need it even more. Who needs more? Or maybe both are deceivers? And from all these assumptions, he had not previously found any way out and gave to everyone as long as there was something to give. In exactly the same perplexity he was before at every question concerning his condition, when one said that it was necessary to do this, and the other - otherwise.
Now, to his surprise, he found that in all these questions there were no more doubts and perplexities. Now a judge appeared in him, according to some laws unknown to him, deciding what was necessary and what was not necessary to do.
He was just as indifferent to money matters as before; but now he certainly knew what he must do and what he must not do.
The first application of this new judge was for him the request of a captured French colonel who came to him, told a lot about his exploits and at the end almost demanded that Pierre give him four thousand francs to send to his wife and children. Pierre refused him without the slightest effort and tension, later marveling at how simple and easy it was that which had previously seemed insoluble difficult. At the same time, immediately refusing the colonel, he decided that it was necessary to use a trick in order to force the Italian officer to take money, which he apparently needed, when leaving Orel. New evidence for Pierre of his established view of practical matters was his decision on the issue of his wife's debts and on the renewal or non-renewal of Moscow houses and dachas.

wiki-org.ru

Description of the snail

Let's start with the fact that snails - it is a type of shellfish. In many countries, their meat is eaten, it is even considered a delicacy, but this “beast” is not so often considered as a pet.

Nevertheless, snails are quite familiar to an aquarist; moreover, they are always present in aquariums, sometimes they start up there even without the knowledge of the owner (they are brought in with soil or algae). But this hardly applies to the lawn, if only because this snail is quite large: its dimensions reach 3 cm in length, even more in height, up to 4.5 cm.

The Latin name for the mollusk is Viviparus viviparus. He lives in fresh water. A thin snail shell has the shape of a cone-shaped spiral, consisting of 5-6 turns with clearly defined contours.

The main color of the “shell” is brown, but the shades can change, and, interestingly, even in the same mollusk during its life: these are peculiar age-related changes. The color also has a tint of rich green or olive color. The coils of the spiral are "outlined" by contour contrasting stripes of any shades of yellow. A strip of the same color marks the "exit" from the shell in the form of a horn cover - it can be carved, rounded or figured.

The body itself is dark, but golden sparkles seem to be scattered over it.

The wide and flat shape of the body makes the snail very tenacious and allows it to crawl from one object to another right under water. The head has the appearance of a proboscis, crowned with two long horns (or tentacles) that are exposed forward when moving.

By the shape of the tentacles, by the way, you can determine the sex of the snail: in girls they are the same and symmetrical, while in boys the right one is noticeably thicker.

The eyes of the mollusc are located at the base of the horns, the respiratory organs (gills and breathing tube) are on the back. Interestingly, of the pair of gills, one is complete, while the other is in its infancy. Such a respiratory system is called the comb-gill.

The age of a snail can be judged not only by color, but also by the size and shape of the shell. In young it is faceted and covered with bristles, in adults it is more rounded and smooth.

If the lawn is pulled out of the water, it instantly slams shut in its shell and calmly awaits the outcome of events. Once again in the water element, the mollusk gradually crawls out and, if we are talking about an aquarium, allows itself to be admired.

However, such snails emerge quite rarely, unlike, for example, the coil snail. Its main habitat is the bottom of the reservoir, and the more silt will cover it, the better.

Kinds

There are two main types of lawns - real, or river (river snail), and striped, or swamp. It cannot be said that they are fundamentally different from each other, but it should be noted that aquariums usually contain precisely the “striped version” of the mollusk.

Real (river)

River meadows are larger in size (it was precisely its dimensions that were discussed in the previous section), and the main color of their shell is dark brown. These mollusks live in the central and eastern parts of the European continent.

Striped (swamp)

Marsh lawn, as you might guess, prefers standing water to running water. It is smaller than its river relative, but not essential: the maximum height of the shell corresponds to 4 cm, the minimum is half as much. Habitat - almost all swampy water bodies of Europe.

The top of the shell of this mollusk is more blunt, but its tip is very sharp, and the outlet is decoratively curved upwards. There are more turns of the spiral in such snails than in river snails: their number ranges from 6 to 7. The gills of this mollusk also have their own differences - there are more outgrowths on their main plate, which makes their structure look like a fish.
With a small size, these snails have an undeniable advantage over the river variety (from the aquarist's point of view): their shell has a very bright emerald sheen, which gives it an exquisite and even exotic look, sometimes the striped lawn is even confused with the South American snail snail.

Conditions for keeping

Luzhanki breathe with gills, and therefore, the quality of the water is of fundamental importance to them. In this regard, this type of mollusk seriously loses to the coil. In addition to cleanliness, the water in the aquarium must be well saturated with oxygen.

It is also important to know that viviparous snails prefer cold water, the maximum they can withstand is +24°C. Since the heating of aquarium water above the specified limit in an apartment is unlikely, we can say that this parameter can be attributed to the advantages of a lawn as a pet.

Not too deep aquariums are best suited for a viviparous snail. The water in them can be of any acidity and hardness, but the presence of a thick layer of soil is necessary, because it is in it that the mollusk earns its living.

How to put a snail in an aquarium

Luzhanka can be purchased at a pet store or from a neighbor aquarist, in which case no special precautions need to be taken before placing a new tenant in the aquarium. But, since these snails are found in abundance in almost all European water bodies, many prefer not to buy them, but to catch them on their own. To do this, sometimes it is enough to take a net and draw it along the muddy bottom of the reservoir, generously scooping up the soil.

If you decide to buy a meadowsweet, the only thing you need to worry about is not to pay too much for it (this type of snail is sometimes sold under the guise of exotic), but the mollusk caught in a nearby pond must first be quarantined.

In any container with water, a very weak solution of potassium permanganate (in simple terms, potassium permanganate) is diluted. The solution should be a barely noticeable pink hue, just a couple of crystals are enough per liter of water.

Recently, unfortunately, it is almost impossible to purchase potassium permanganate, therefore, as a replacement, you can use a streptocide tablet at the rate of three pieces per liter of water. The drug is ground into powder and thoroughly mixed in water until completely dissolved.

Place your catch in the prepared antiseptic solution and keep it for at least a week (preferably 10 days). Only after that, the lawn can be transplanted into a common aquarium.

What to feed meadowsweet

The advantage of keeping meadowsweet together with aquarium fish is that these mollusks do not require any special feeding. It is quite enough for them that it settles on the ground, for this reason it is important that its layer is thick enough.

The main diet of snails consists of decaying aquarium plants, uneaten leftover fish food, and even their excrement. By the way, in this sense, large meadows act as good orderlies or aquarium cleaners, but do not count on the fact that now you can do without cleaning at all. These mollusks do not eat living vegetation, which cannot be said about many other snails - for this they are loved.
If there are no other inhabitants in the aquarium except for snails, it is enough from time to time to throw some fish food into the meadows.

To make the lawn shell more beautiful and durable, buy special snail chalk at the pet store. The chalk with which your children write on the blackboard at school is not suitable for these purposes: it contains substances that are poisonous to shellfish.

Reproduction features

Most mollusks lay eggs, but meadowsweet is an exception. It is called viviparous because the offspring of this snail goes through the entire stage of development before birth in utero and is born almost independent snails, generally not needing further care of the mother.

Usually, in order for the meadowsweet to start breeding, it is enough to have an opposite-sex pair in the aquarium. The time of year for the reproduction of these mollusks does not matter. But if the offspring is not observed for a long time, it is possible that the conditions of detention are not suitable for the snails. In this case, start with the usual cleaning of the aquarium with a complete replacement of the soil, very often this is enough.

However, the mentioned problem occurs quite rarely, more often the aquarist is faced with the exact opposite trouble: meadow grasses begin to breed so actively that soon it becomes literally crowded in the aquarium. In this case, nothing can be done - the population must be reduced. There are various ways to do this: from catching and releasing surplus to the settlement of natural enemies of this type of mollusks in the aquarium.

The viviparous snail is a very good option for breeding in an aquarium. It is generally unpretentious, widespread and therefore inexpensive (or gets it for free if you are not too lazy to go to the pond with a net), looks quite elegant, does not require special feeding and cleans the aquarium well from natural waste that accumulates on its bottom.

pets2.me

River viviparous (Viviparus viviparus) is a gastropod mollusk, the size of which is about 5 cm. Its habitat is stagnant water bodies of Europe. The viviparous river has the following appearance: a beautiful conical shell with up to 7 smooth turns. The shell is colored either brownish or brownish-green with dark stripes. The bottom of the shell has a lid, which, if danger arises, the mollusk closes behind itself like a door.

The respiratory organ of the river viviparous is the gills. Both in natural conditions and in aquariums, the snail keeps mainly on the ground, stones and snags. Livebearers feed on bottom food: fish leftovers and fallen leaves of plants. They get along well in indoor reservoirs with peaceful fish, do not touch the eggs laid by the fish in the aquarium.

For these mollusks, the quality of the water is not of fundamental importance, since under natural conditions they live in swampy waters. But this does not mean at all that your aquarium can be a complete mess. The purer the water, the better for everyone: for fish, plants and snails. These snails perform their main function - "scavengers" impeccably. Thanks to them, the bottom is free from debris, which, when rotting, either causes acute poisoning or becomes a breeding ground for many types of bacteria.

The live-bearer of the river does not require any specialized food - the mollusk eats everything that is "underfoot". Livebearers reproduce quite often, while up to 3 dozen mollusks with thin transparent shells-shells are born at the same time. In a short time, the color of these natural shells becomes the same as in adults. As for the number of snails in an aquarium, there are no particular restrictions, although ideally there should be no more than ten of them in a 50-liter aquarium. Snails, as they reproduce, must be caught and planted in another container.

aqua-shrimp.livejournal.com

Luzhanka is a snail that is widespread in our country, living in stagnant water bodies from lakes to swamps. The shell of the meadowsweet is relatively thin-walled, spirally curled, pale brownish in color with a greenish tint and three dark brown stripes. The color of the shell is highly variable and sometimes lighter, sometimes darker. The mouth of the shell, when the snail is drawn into it, is very tightly closed by a horny operculum with clearly visible concentric stripes.

The coloration of the soft parts of the body of this snail is also remarkably beautiful: golden-brown dots are scattered on the general dark background of the skin. On the head, a lobe-shaped snout with long tentacles protrudes rather strongly forward, at the bases of which there are eyes. The right tentacle in males, which plays the role of the copulatory apparatus, is greatly expanded and has a rounded shape.

The eggs fertilized in the body of the female develop in the oviduct, in the terminal part of which, during pregnancy, embryos of later stages of development can be found. The presence of embryos of different ages in the same egg tube makes the lawn a convenient and favorite object for embryological research.

Luzhanka belongs to gill snails, which extract oxygen from the water with the help of a gill apparatus hidden under the shell. The meadow snail has a well-developed comb-like gill with numerous gill outgrowths that somewhat resemble the gills of fish. Due to water respiration, meadowsweet are very sensitive to water quality and, under adverse conditions, die much faster than other snails. Often there is an overgrowth of meadows with algae, which cover their shells in the form of a green coating, completely hiding their characteristic pattern. Sometimes algae grow so abundantly that they completely cover the shell with a kind of green fluff.

Lawnworts are best kept in shallow aquariums with silty ground into which they could burrow in search of food. Luzhanka snails feed on rotting plant debris, they also eat up fish food and excrement that have fallen to the bottom. Although this snail is very interesting, it can often become a carrier of diseases dangerous for fish. Therefore, usually a viviparous meadow is not kept along with fish.

Empty shells of a meadowsweet snail

The lid that closes the entrance to the sink is clearly visible.

pitomecdoma.ru

Luzhanka belongs to the so-called comb-gill molluscs, i.e. in which the respiratory cavity lies on the back and consists of one large gill and a small rudimentary. In addition, water is conducted into this cavity using a special breathing tube. The shell of this snail is ovoid or spherical-conical with strongly convex whorls connected by a deep suture. Its color is dirty olive-green with three brown-brown stripes.

From the animal, only a short, non-retractable snout and two long, slender tentacles peep out of the shell, at the base of which (on the outer side) there are eyes. The body of the meadow grass is black-brown, covered with small dark orange specks that look like grains of sand, which gives it a rather beautiful appearance.

A distinctive feature of this snail, as its very name shows - viviparous, is the production of live young.

It is impossible for anyone who did not have this snail to imagine what a pleasant sight the birth of these pretty, as if fluffy tiny creatures, each of which, despite its smallness, is equipped with a separate tiny shell. When this catastrophe happened to me for the first time, I, not yet knowing this property of the lawn, was simply amazed and did not want to believe that these little ones were her children. This time, eight of them were born on the first day and four more the next day, but subsequently there were cases when they were hatched much more.

As soon as they hatched, the babies immediately began to eat algae and for the first time kept together. But then, little by little, they dispersed throughout the aquarium and, to my great chagrin, were mostly eaten by fish. Only two remained, which I took out of the aquarium and transplanted into a jar. These two grew very well and within a year had reached a respectable size. Then I again transplanted them into the aquarium, but this was also not lucky, and they disappeared just like the small ones. As for the mother, whether by chance or as it should be, she made me sick every time after giving birth to cubs, and once it even happened that the last little ones crawled out not from a living snail, but from the mother's corpse.

Another feature of this snail is a round plate located on the underside of its leg and covering the shell when the snail enters it like a cap. This protective measure is very important for the lawn and saves it from many misfortunes. In all probability, it was given to her by nature instead of the fecundity that distinguishes other species of snails and which is comparatively denied to the meadowsweet: in my case, at least, the meadowsweet never gave birth to more than twenty children, while all the other snails laid their eggs in whole hundreds. Shell caps also exist in babies.

However, if you believe the words of Spalanzani, then nature took care of the conservation of meadows in another way. Spalanzani says that if you take such newly hatched crumbs and raise each one in a separate vessel, then they multiply as if without any fertilization, like some kind of aphid. How true this is, however, I cannot say, since in modern times, it seems, no one has yet repeated this experiment.

aquaria2.ru

Yuri, pay attention to the final phrase ..

Viviparus (Paludina) viviparus - viviparous Luzhanka. Luzhanka is a large snail with a spirally curled shell, which looks like a blunt cone, shell height 40 mm, width 30 mm. The color of the shell is light brown with a greenish tint. Three dark brown stripes run along the whorls of the shell. The shell opening can be tightly closed with a horn cap. Concentric stripes are clearly visible on this cap. Caught out of the water meadows lie motionless with closed lids. But, being lowered into the water, after a while the snails open the lids and push their dark-colored body out of the shell. The body of the meadowsweet is dark in color, and golden-brown dots seem to be scattered on this dark background. The head of the meadowsweet is extended in front into a short proboscis, on which the mouth is located. The meadow grass has two long tentacles (horns, antennae), which it puts forward when it moves. Moreover, in the female, these antennae horns are of the same thickness, while in the male, the right tentacle is greatly expanded. A wide flat foot gives the snail the ability to slowly crawl over underwater objects. Luzhanka belongs to the so-called comb-gill molluscs, i.e. in which the respiratory cavity lies on the back and consists of one large gill and a small rudimentary. In addition, water is conducted into this cavity using a special breathing tube. If the snail is frightened, then it compresses the air supply that is in the lungs, and quickly sinks to the bottom, because it becomes heavier than water. On the contrary, if it is at the bottom and it becomes necessary to swallow fresh air, it relieves the pressure on the compressed air, which, by expanding, makes it lighter and lifts the snail to the surface of the water.
There are two close, very similar species: the real meadow grass, characteristic of stagnant water bodies (Viviparus viviparus), and the striped meadow grass (Viviparus contectus), found in running waters. The latter species is somewhat smaller than the former and has a more blunt shell apex and a shell opening pointed upwards. Snails feed on various plant remains that are found at the bottom of reservoirs. Young lawns are not similar to adults, not only in size, but also in the shape of the shell. The latter seems to be faceted and covered with hard bristles, which subsequently fall off. In nature, lawns endure the most severe conditions. Unlike pond snails and coils, meadows have separate sexes. As the name itself says, it is a viviparous snail. If you plant one female and one male together, then almost all the time small snails will appear in the aquarium - meadowsweet can breed in the aquarium throughout the year. She does not lay eggs, but brings live snails. Newborn meadow snails immediately begin to lead the same lifestyle as adult snails. It is, of course, more interesting to the zoologist than to the aquarium lover, as it is inactive and remains hidden in its shelter for a very long time. Although this snail is very interesting, it can often become a carrier of diseases dangerous for fish. Therefore, usually a lawn is viviparous together with the fish are not kept.

aquastatus.ru

Luzhanki (family viviparidae) belong to the anterior gill mollusks, which extract oxygen from the water with the help of a gill apparatus hidden under the shell. We have the most common two close, similar to each other species: real lawn (Viviparus viviparus), living in stagnant waters, and smaller striped lawn (V. contectus) - inhabitant of flowing waters.

A real meadow grass is a large snail with a shell in the form of a blunt yellowish-brown cone (up to 40 mm high). Three dark brown stripes run along the whorls of the shell. The hole is closed with a horn cap. The striped lawn has a shell with a blunt top and a hole pointed upwards.

Luzhanki are usually found in reservoirs with a muddy bottom. Caught from the water, they close the lid of the shell, and after being placed in the water, after a while they open it and push their dark body, dotted with small yellow specks, outward. With the help of a wide flat foot, the snail slowly moves along the bottom.

The meadowsweet are characterized by water breathing. With a lack of oxygen dissolved in water, they die much faster than pond snails and coils, which can float to the surface.

Interesting reproduction meadows. Unlike pond snails and coils, they are separate sexes. Latin genus name Viviparus(live-bearer) indicates that the snail gives birth to live young (other freshwater gastropods lay eggs). Young grasshoppers do not look like adults. Their shell is covered with hard bristles, which subsequently fall off.

Luzhanki outwardly resemble ampoule. Sometimes in the Bird Market they are sold to inexperienced aquarists under the guise of this tropical mollusk.

One of the means is not to graze animals in wet meadows and to dry up flooded pastures. Of the chemical methods of control, it is recommended to destroy the transmitter with the help of milk of lime (1000-1400 kg of lime per 1 ha), salt, caustic potassium, copper sulphate. However, the fight against Limnaea truncatula is very difficult: chemical methods are expensive, and drying pastures does not always give positive results due to the noted ability of the mollusk to resist drying out.

Luzhanki and bitinia

Luzhanki (Viviparus viviparus L., Paludina vivipara) belong to the class of gastropods (Gastropoda), to the order of prosobranchia, to the family of meadow grasses (Viviparidae).

Luzhanka is a large snail with a spirally curled shell, which looks like a blunt yellowish-brown cone (shell height 40 mm, width 30 mm). Three dark brown stripes run along the whorls of the shell. The shell opening can be tightly closed with a horn cap.

Luzhanki and bitiniya. Eat led. 1 - real lawn (Viviparus viviparus), 2 - striped lawn (V. fasciata), 3 - tentacle bithynia (Ltithynia tentaculata).

There are two close, very similar species: the real meadow grass, characteristic of stagnant water bodies (V. viviparus), and the striped meadow grass (V. contectus Millet), found in flowing waters. The latter species is somewhat smaller than the former and has a more blunt shell apex and a shell opening pointed upwards. In addition, there are also various local varieties, which we will not dwell on.

The representative of the close Hydrobndae family is somewhat similar to the lawn - tentacle bithynia (Bithynia tentaculata L.), a small snail (shell height 10 mm, width b mm) with a conical shell equipped with a calcareous cap.

Both meadow grass and bitinia are ordinary inhabitants of our reservoirs and are often found in abundance. Luzhanki usually live in reservoirs with a muddy bottom, sometimes dotting it completely. When catching lawns, you should carry out a net along the very bottom of the reservoir, where animals are kept. Due to the presence of an operculum, meadow grass and bitinia are difficult to mix with other mollusks similar to them, and even the most inexperienced sightseer will distinguish them at first sight.

Movement. Caught out of the water meadows lie motionless with closed lids. But, being lowered into the water, after a while the snails open the lids and push their dark-colored body, dotted with small yellow specks, out of the shell. The head of the meadowsweet is extended in front into a short proboscis, on which the mouth is located. On the head there is a pair of thin tentacles, at the outer base of which is placed over the eye. A wide flat foot gives the snail the ability to slowly crawl over underwater objects.

Both meadow grass and bitinia always stay at the bottom of the reservoir and do not float to the surface, like pond snails and coils. In case of danger, they close the shell with a lid, which serves as an excellent protective shield for these snails.

Breath. Unlike the pond snail and the reel, the meadowsweet and bithynia belong to gill snails that extract oxygen from the water with the help of a gill apparatus hidden under the shell. The meadowsweet has a well-developed ridge-shaped gill with numerous gill outgrowths that somewhat resemble the gills of fish. Thanks to water respiration, meadowsweet and bitinia are very sensitive to water quality and, under adverse conditions, die much faster than pond snails and coils.

Snails feed on various plant remains that are found at the bottom of reservoirs. Bithynia willingly eats a green coating of algae on underwater objects.

Of considerable interest is the reproduction of the lawn. Its Latin name Viviparus - livebearer - indicates that it gives birth to live cubs, carrying eggs and juveniles in its body, which distinguishes it from other freshwater gastropods. Young lawns are not similar to adults, not only in size, but also in the shape of the shell. The latter appears as if faceted and covered with hard bristles, which subsequently fall off. Unlike pond snails and coils, meadows have separate sexes. Having found a mature female, you can immediately open her shell on the excursion and, having broken the turns of the spiral, show young, not yet born grasshoppers at various stages of development.

Unlike meadow grass, bithynia reproduces by laying eggs on aquatic plants. Its clutch has a very peculiar shape and is easily distinguished from the clutches of other mollusks: it consists of hexagonal eggs, which are located in a double row and are lined with a gelatinous substance, forming an oblong mucous cord (Fig. 189).

Finally, let us note the often observed fouling of meadows with algae, which cover their shells in the form of a green coating, completely hiding their characteristic pattern. Sometimes algae grow so abundantly that they completely cover the shell with a kind of green fluff.

A similar overgrowth of algae is characteristic, although to a lesser extent, of lung mollusks, for example, coils.

Remarkable is the resistance that the lawns show when the reservoir they inhabit dries up, which is greatly facilitated by the presence of a lid. Thus, it was observed that the striped meadow grass (Viviparus contecfts) survived out of water for up to 10 months, while burrowing into the ground to a depth of 15 cm.

Coils

Coils (Planorbis) belong to the class of gastropods (Gastropoda), to the order of pulmonary (Pulmonata), to the family of coils (Planorbidae).

The coil can be distinguished at a glance due to its extremely characteristic shell, curled in one plane in the form of a spiral cord.

The horn coil (P. corneus L.), the largest among the others (shell diameter 30 mm, height 12 mm), of a reddish-brown color attracts the most attention of excursionists. This coil is found everywhere in both pond and lake waters.

Coils. Eating. led. (Orig.)

1 - horn coil (Planorbis corneus); 2 - edge coil (P. marginatus); 3 - keel coil (P. carinatus), 4 - circular coil (P. vortex); 5 - curled coil (P. contortus); 6 - smooth coil (P. glaber)

Of medium-sized coils, we note the marginal coil (P. marginatus L.) (shell diameter 15 mm, thickness 3.5 mm), the whorls of which are equipped with a filamentous keel passing in the middle of the whorl; much more common than the previous one is the keel coil (P. carinatus L.), almost the same size, in which the filiform keel is shifted to the underside. A somewhat smaller size is a circular coil (P. vortex L.) (shell diameter 10 mm, thickness 1 mm) of a very flat shape, with closely wound whorls, with a keel without a filamentous appendage.

Next, we note an almost black curled coil (P. contortus L.) (shell diameter 4-5 mm, thickness 1.8 mm), the turns of which are very closely wound, so that their number reaches 7-8. Almost the same size, but with a small number of rapidly growing whorls, the shells of P. complanatus L.

The movements of the coils resemble the movements of pond snails. Crawling, snails expose their dark soft body far from the shell and move along underwater objects with the help of their wide flat legs. On the head there is a pair of thin tentacles, at the base of which the eyes are placed. Coils, just like pond snails, can wander along the surface of water bodies, being suspended from a film of surface tension of a liquid.

Coils breathe atmospheric air, taking it into the lung cavity formed by the walls of the mantle. The respiratory opening leading to the indicated cavity opens on the side of the body, near the edge of the shell. It opens when the coil rises to the surface of the water for a supply of air. With a lack of air, the coil uses a special leathery outgrowth, which is placed on the body near the pulmonary opening and plays the role of a primitive gill. In addition, the coil, in all likelihood, breathes directly through the skin.

Nutrition. Coils feed on plant foods, eating parts of plants that are scraped off with a grater. Especially willingly, these snails eat green plaque from small algae, which forms on the walls of the aquarium. Outside, through the glass, it is not difficult to observe how the animal works with its grater, raking up plaque like a spatula. It is very possible that coils can also eat animal food. At least in captivity, they willingly pounce on raw meat.

Reproduction. Coils reproduce by laying eggs on the leaves of aquatic plants and other underwater objects. The masonry of the horn coil is constantly found on excursions and is so characteristic that it can be easily distinguished: it has the appearance of a flat gelatinous plate of oval yellowish or light brown color and contains several dozen round pinkish transparent eggs. After two weeks or more (depending on the temperature of the water), tiny snails hatch from the eggs and grow fairly quickly. The caviar of coils, like other snails, is readily eaten by fish and exterminated by them in large numbers. Like the pond snail, coils are hermaphrodites.

The behavior of the coils during the drying of the reservoirs in which they occur is interesting. They burrow into moist silt, like the large horn coil (P. corneus). Sometimes this coil remains on the surface of the soil, sticking to the silt with its mouth, if moisture remains in it, or it releases a dense, water-insoluble film, which closes the shell opening. In the latter case, the body of the mollusk gradually shrinks, eventually occupying a third of the shell, and the weight of the soft parts drops by 40-50%. In this state, the mollusk can survive out of water for up to three months (marginal coil P. marginatus P. planorbis).

Bibliography

B.E. Raikov, M.N. Rimsky-Korsakov. Zoological excursions. 1956.

The snail belongs to the animal kingdom, mollusk type, class gastropods or gastropods (Gastropoda). The Latin designation of the snail was formed as a result of the union and transformation of two words of ancient Greek origin: "γαστήρ", which meant "belly" and "πούς", corresponding to the concept of "leg". The Russian version of the name "snail" arose from the Old Slavonic adjective "ulitъ", translated as "hollow". Thus, a snail is an animal that wears a hollow house, a shelter.

Description of the snail, structure, characteristics, photographs. What does a snail look like?

Like all representatives of the gastropods, the snail has an external shell and a body, which is formed by the head and leg. The snail's body is both a means of transportation and an abdomen. A special fold, called a mantle, covers it from above. The space between them is called the mantle cavity. In species that live in the salt waters of the seas and oceans, as well as in freshwater reservoirs, gills are located in the mantle cavity. To create a constant flow of water washing the gills of the snail, the mantle cavity contains:

• an inlet siphon through which water enters the cavity, enriching the respiratory organs with oxygen;
• outlet siphon used to remove waste water.

In addition to the organs that supply the body of the snail with oxygen, the mantle contains the output ducts of the kidneys, the reproductive apparatus and the excretory system are also included here.

In snails that live on land, the mantle cavity has changed into a kind of lung. To take air into the respiratory organs, they have a breathing hole located at the edge of the snail shell or in front of the muscular body.

On the head of the snail stand out the eyes located on the stalks, one or two pairs of tentacles that perform the functions of the organs of touch, and the mouth.

How many teeth does a snail have? And does she have teeth?

All animals from the class of gastropods have a special organ in the mouth called the radula. It combines the functions of the teeth and tongue of the cochlea and consists of a cartilaginous plate on which the cochlea's teeth of various shapes are arranged in several rows.

Plant-eating snails have small teeth, predatory snails have larger teeth, and their shape can be in the form of hooks or peaks. In total, a snail can have up to 25,000 teeth. There are usually 120 rows of 100 teeth in each row on the radula, for a total of about 12,000 teeth.

In some poisonous species of snails, the teeth have a cavity inside. Through it, toxins flow from a special gland and paralyze the victim.

All gastropods have poor eyesight and hearing, which is compensated by a well-developed sense of touch and smell, which helps them find food and navigate in space.

The color and size of the snail depends on the species.

Snail mucus plays an important role for the mollusk. The snail crawls on a thin layer of mucus that aids in gliding and protects the body from injury.

snail shell

A characteristic feature of gastropods is the presence of an external strong shelter - a shell. The material for the construction of the "house" is calcium carbonate and a special protein that is produced by cells located in the mantle of the mollusk. As the animal grows, so does the size of the snail shell.

The snail shell can have a flat spiral and turbospiral (conical) shape, and its surface can be absolutely smooth or covered with various growths.

In almost all snails, the turns in the spiral are directed from left to right, curling in the opposite direction is very rare.

The conical shape of the shell is the reason for the asymmetric development of the internal organs of the animal. The size of the shell and its coloring are varied.

There are types of snails with reduced external protection: instead of a strong shell, they have a calcareous plate hidden inside the folds of the mantle.

These species include slugs that live in everyone's gardens.

Where do snails live?

The distribution area of ​​​​snails includes almost all climatic zones of the globe, with the exception of areas that are covered with eternal ice and flat waterless deserts. You can meet gastropods both in the warm waters of the Mediterranean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, and in the icy depths of the Barents and Arctic Oceans.

Gastropods are common in the tropical rainforests of Africa and South America, deciduous groves of Russia and parks in North America, freshwater reservoirs in Germany, Spain, France and India, China and Japan. The main condition for a comfortable habitat for snails is high humidity, otherwise the body of the mollusk will dry out and the animal will die.

What do snails eat in nature?

When asked what snails eat, we can say that the diet of gastropods is varied and depends on their environment. Young herbivorous snails eat fresh soft parts of plants (sedge, young couch grass, sorrel, cabbage leaves, and so on), but with age, preferences change, and snails begin to eat decaying plant remains. Some snails feed on insects and carrion.

Predatory snails feed on small relatives and crustaceans, worms and flies, while marine species of snails eat fish, using paralyzing poison to hunt them.

Types of snails, names and photos. Marine, freshwater, land, gill and lung snails

The class of gastropods includes more than 110,000 species, more than 1.6 thousand of which live in Russia.

The most poisonous snail in the world is a geographic cone ( conus geographus)

inhabitant of the Indian and Pacific Ocean. The portion of the toxin that she produces is enough to kill 10 adults. Until now, scientists have not been able to find an effective antidote for its action. The geographic cone strikes its victims with a poisonous cloud of high levels of insulin, which drastically lowers the victim's blood sugar.

The smallest snail in the world- it's a snail Angustopila dominikae

Its size is 0.86 mm. Several such snails can be located in one needle eye.

The biggest snail in the world is a giant Australian trumpeter ( Syrinx aruanus)

Its weight is 18 kg along with the mollusk itself, and the shell length reaches 91 cm. The world's largest snail is a predator, feeds on worms and lives at a depth of up to 30 meters. Habitat - coastal areas in the north of Australia, as well as the sea off Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

According to the habitat, the whole variety of snails is divided into land, freshwater and marine, and according to the type of breathing - into pulmonary and gills.

Lung snails

Typical representatives of this group are:

grape snail (Helix pomatia)

a rather large European land mollusk with a spirally curved shell, the diameter of which reaches 50 mm, and the number of turns is 5. The leg length of a grape snail ranges from 40 to 50 mm with a width of about 20 mm. The color palette in which the snail shell can be painted contains tones from cream to red-brown. Along the entire length, the first three turns are alternately intersected by dark and light stripes. On the surface of the shell of a grape snail, small ribs are clearly visible. Under natural conditions, a grape snail can live from 8 to 20 years. It lives in the central and southeastern regions of Europe, it is especially common in the Baltic countries. Since ancient times, people have eaten grape snails.

From spring to the cold months, the snail leads an active lifestyle. With the advent of cold weather, it burrows into the soil 30 cm deep and falls into suspended animation. The mouth of the shell during wintering is closed by an epiphragm, a lime plug.

Coil snail (Planorbidae)

The shell of this mollusk has the form of a flatly twisted spiral, similar to ram's horns, up to 35 mm in diameter and about 10 mm wide. Its coloration is similar to the body color and can be from light beige to orange-brown. The body of the snail coil is conical in shape with a head on which one pair of horns is clearly visible. At their ends are cells that are sensitive to light. Coils are inhabitants of shallow water bodies with an abundance of vegetation and a moderate current, preferring the central part of Russia.

Achatina giant (Achatina fulica)

large African land snail. The length of the conical shell in adults ranges from 5 to 10 cm, and the number of turns - from 7 to 9. However, there are single specimens, the length of which reaches 20 cm. The direction of the turns can be either clockwise or counterclockwise. The color of the "house" depends on the living conditions and food consumed, but mainly consists of alternating stripes of reddish-brown and yellow. The leg length of the mollusk can reach 30 cm. Achatina lives only in a tropical climate, in other regions it is kept only in captivity.

Red roadside slug (Arion rufus)

a land mollusk that does not have a shell. The protective role is played by a small plate hidden by the mantle of the animal. The body of the snail is colored red-brown or orange, and the sole of the foot is light brown. The dimensions of this pest of gardens and orchards reach 100 mm in length and 20 mm in width. The entire body of the snail is covered with thick, unpleasant mucus. The slug lives in Europe.

gill snails

bitinii (Bithynia)

small freshwater snails with conical, ovoid or tower-shaped shells. Their surface can be either smooth or covered with a spiral texture. The dimensions of the shells with 5 complete turns do not exceed 12-14 mm in height and 9 mm in width, and their color can be olive, dark gray or brown. Depending on the living conditions of individuals, the life expectancy of snails ranges from 3 to 5 years. The habitat is the countries of Europe, the north-eastern regions of Asia, the territory of North America.

Luzhanki (viviparous) (Viviparidae)

small freshwater gastropod mollusks with a shell in the form of a blunt cone up to 40 mm long and about 30 mm wide. The shell of the meadow snail is curled in 5 or 6 turns with convex coils, which may have a relief sculpture. The color palette in which the shells are painted depends on the habitat of the snail and can be red-brown, brown-yellow or light brown with a noticeable green tint. Representatives of this species of freshwater snails are viviparous individuals. The main habitat is Europe, except for its northern regions. Occasionally, the meadow snail is found in Scandinavian countries.

Buccinums (trumpeters) (Buccinum)

rather large sea snails with a shell length of up to 25 cm and a height of up to 16 cm. Its shape is elongated and expanded, and it is painted in light brown tones. The surface of the snail shell can be smooth or embossed with bulges. The trumpeter snail is a typical predator and paralyzes its prey with poisonous saliva. It lives only in the cool waters of the oceans of the Northern Hemisphere.

Types of aquarium snails

Aquarium snails can live in all types of aquariums. Many of them eat leftover food and garbage, rotting plants, dead fish, other snails, clean windows, and some of them simply make you admire their beauty. Most aquarium snails are omnivorous and are kept by aquarists for the purpose of cleaning the aquarium. But, unfortunately, all types of snails will eat completely aquarium plants and fish eggs, which is not always an advantage. In addition, aquarium snails reproduce very quickly. Consider the main types of aquarium snails.

Coil ( Planorbidae)

one of the most frequent snails in the aquarium. Small in size, it has a rather interesting appearance and is therefore popular with fish breeders. The size of the coil is no more than 3 cm. The coils breed very quickly, in addition, these snails are highly survivable even in dirty water and in the absence of food. Coils eat leftover food and algae. They breathe both atmospheric oxygen and oxygen dissolved in water. The benefit of coils is that they eat bacterial films that appear on the surface of the aquarium. Adult coils live 3-4 years.

Neritina (family Neritidae)

useful and beautiful aquarium snail. Its size is about 2 cm. The water in the aquarium, which contains neritin, should not be colder than 24-27 degrees. Water hardness should be medium or high, in addition, it is desirable to change the water as often as possible. The long life of a neritina snail is 1 year. With a sharp change in the conditions of detention, the snail may die. The color of neritin is diverse - from black to olive, with a variety of stripes and dots. Like other types of aquarium snails, neritins clean the water well. There are several types of snails that are part of the neritin family.

Ampullaria ( Pomacea bridgesii, Ampullaria australis)

is a fairly common type of aquarium snail, but is demanding in terms of maintenance, and therefore not so popular among aquarists. The appetite and size of the snails are rather big; if there is a shortage of food, they eat young plants. The size of aquarium snails varies from 5 to 15 cm. In an aquarium where snails live, there must be air space above the water so that the snails can breathe. In addition, these snails can crawl out of the aquarium, so closed-type aquariums are more suitable for them, because snails cannot live outside the water. The optimum water temperature should be 17-30 degrees. As the temperature in the water rises, the lifespan of the snail may be shortened. Ampullaria live up to 4 years. They do not get along with predatory fish that eat snails. Regular fish food is also suitable for this type of aquarium snail.

Fiza (Physa )

a popular species of aquarium snails among aquarists. The size of the snail does not exceed 2 cm. Due to the shape of its shell, the snail can crawl into the most inaccessible places in the aquarium. Fiza actively eats live aquarium algae, and having pulmonary respiration, it can live without water. They breed very quickly, so they are not always good for the aquarium, as it is necessary to monitor their numbers. Physicists clean the aquarium very well from bacterial films and green deposits on the walls. The optimum water temperature for this type of aquarium snail should not fall below 20 degrees. Water hardness should be in the range of 8-18 degrees, as too soft water leads to the destruction of the snail shell.

tilomelania (Tylomelania )

a very beautiful snail, but requires certain conditions of detention. The length of the snail can reach 12 cm. The shell can be of a wide variety of colors, both smooth and with spikes. The optimum water temperature for tilomelania is between 20 and 32 degrees. The water should be soft and highly acidic. With snails of other species, tilomelanies do not get along well. This type of aquarium snail is omnivorous, they need to be fed 2-3 times a day, as they eat a lot. Thylomelanias love light and space in the aquarium, so a large number of plants, bright light and lack of shelters will not suit this type of snail.

Melania (Melanoides )

a type of aquarium snail that quickly eats all the waste in the aquarium and multiplies rapidly. The optimum temperature for the snail is from 18 to 28 degrees. Melania shell has a conical shape and gray-green color with stripes. The size of the snail is 3.5 cm. Melania love to burrow into the ground, and their hard shell protects them from predatory fish. In food, snails are unpretentious.

Pagoda (brotia) ( Brotia pagodula)

reaches a length of 6 cm. The optimum water temperature for an aquarium snail is 20-26 degrees. These snails need a sufficient amount of oxygen in the water. Sand is desirable as a soil, as well as the presence of stone blocks. Pagoda snails eat algae and also eat fish food. The life expectancy of a pagoda does not exceed 6 months.

Maryse (Marisa )

this is a rather large snail, the width of its shell is 1.8-2.2 cm, the diameter reaches 5.5 cm.
The optimum water temperature for mariza is 21-25 degrees, the water should be of moderate acidity and hardness. Snails can get out of the aquarium, so it is advisable to close it, leaving an air space between the water and the lid, because snails rise to the surface and breathe air. You can feed the snail food for fish, as well as algae.

Helena (Clea helena)

a small species of aquarium snails, reaching a size of 2-3.5 cm. These snails do not get along with their own kind, so helena is often used to reduce the number of other snails in the aquarium. The shell shape of Helena is conical and has no tip. Helena snail loves to burrow into the ground, which consists of sand. It feeds on fish food, other snails and algae.

How do snails reproduce?

Almost all species of gastropods, with rare exceptions, are oviparous. However, the method of fertilization and egg laying depends on the living conditions of the animal.

Lung snails living in fresh water and on land are hermaphrodites. Their gonads have a complex structure and produce both male and female germ cells. Therefore, during the mating process, cross-fertilization occurs.

Snails, inhabitants of freshwater reservoirs, lay fertilized eggs in special gelatinous capsules, and land snails make a separate group laying in dug holes. The average number of snail eggs reaches 80-85 pcs. Their maturation lasts up to 21-28 days. Snail eggs can be of different colors - transparent, white, pink, green.

The process of development of lung snails usually takes place without transformation, bypassing the stage of a floating larva. At the end of the set period, fully formed snails leave the clutch.

A distinctive feature of the babies is a transparent shell, which hardens as the animal grows.

gills snails are dioecious animals. Their sex glands are unpaired. Males have one testis and vas deferens, while females have one ovary and oviduct. Gill snails lay eggs in a special cocoon equipped with a locking lid, which dissolves at the time the larvae appear.

Often, to preserve offspring, the outer row of eggs in the clutch is left empty in order to deceive a predator who wishes to feast on easy prey.

The development of sea snails occurs with transformation: a free-swimming larva appears from the egg, which is called a veliger or a sailboat. It moves due to the fluctuation of special outgrowths covered with thin "cilia", and eats the smallest particles of plant and protein foods.

After a few weeks, the formation of an individual ends, and the young sink to the bottom.

Among the gill mollusks, there are some unique species of snails that are "viviparous". This is because the female snail does not lay eggs.

They are in the body of the mother until full maturation, and already fully formed offspring are born.

Snails living on the earth's surface make a great contribution to the formation of a fertile soil and vegetation layer. Just like earthworms or microorganisms, they recycle the rotting remains of leaves and grasses, cleansing the ecosystem in their habitat. In addition, snails are an important link in the food chains of many animals, being a source of protein food and water for them.

However, today land snails are also kept in aquariums. For this, suitable conditions are created for them: coarse sand is poured onto the bottom of the tank, which is covered with soil from above. A piece of turf, moss and tree bark will complement the illusion of natural conditions. It remains only to cover the aquarium from above with breathable material so that the domestic snail does not escape, and maintain high humidity inside it.

How to feed snails at home? What do domestic snails eat?

As food for a domestic snail, you can give plant leaves, finely chopped carrots and potatoes, zucchini and cabbage, cucumbers and tomatoes, pumpkin and sweet red pepper. You can feed a domestic snail with oatmeal and wheat flakes. The walls of the aquarium should be periodically irrigated with settled water so that the mollusks can fully satisfy the need for moisture. In order for the shell of domestic snails to be strong, bone meal, chalk and finely ground chicken egg shells are included in the diet.

The basic rule is to feed your pet snail in small doses, and give a new portion of food only after the uneaten remains are removed from the aquarium. You can not include marinated, salty, spicy and smoked foods in the snail menu. Pasta and food additives will not benefit animals.

Snails - benefit and harm

"What is the use of snails?" - you ask. In fact, snails are of great benefit not only in the aquarium, but also in any water bodies - ponds, lakes. They are excellent "vacuum cleaners": adults enjoy the decaying remains of plants and algae in the water, do not disdain the waste products of fish, thereby saving the expanses of water in their place of residence from water rotting due to excess organic matter.

It is believed that these snails can soften water by removing dissolved calcium from it and using it to “build” their shell house. Nevertheless, this fact should not be taken too seriously: yes, the snail actually uses a certain amount of calcium from the reservoir, but after the death of the shells of gastropods, they remain in the reservoir, where they dissolve and re-saturate the soil and water with calcium.

Snail mucus has found actual application in cosmetology: it is used in the manufacture of creams and regenerating ointments, and large Achatina snails have proven themselves as professional "masseurs" in expensive beauty salons.

Surprisingly, snails have very tasty meat! Since the time of the Ancient Roman Empire, roast made from grape snails has been valued as an excellent delicacy and served to the nobility at feasts. Today, in many countries, specialized farms are being created, where the snail is bred specifically for eating its tender meat. By the way, snail meat is almost 25 times higher than butter and chicken eggs in terms of the content of useful microelements and vitamins.

Unfortunately, almost all land species of snails are ardent admirers of cultivated plants, therefore, snails often harm plantings in private gardens and on agricultural land, eating juicy cabbage leaves, feasting on the fruits of tomato and strawberries

Snail Tylomelania Orange Rabbit Tylomelania Orange

Snail Polymita picta

Snail Glaucus atlanticus

, and grape snail. It has over 25,000 small and sharp teeth in its mouth.

The structure of the snail's brain allows it to remember the location of food in space and return to it even after one hour.

The Burgundy snail is able to make sounds similar to a quiet creak.