Snails Care Guide
Dark-Banded Snails – Figuladra sp.
So firstly, congratulations on your new snail buddies! If you’re reading this, it’s because you got these guys off us or someone else (that’s cool too!) and you want to make sure you’re on the right track to giving them a good life! This is just a little breakdown of the basic husbandry to kick you off in the right track.
Enclosure Requirements
So the bare minimum for a small sized snail is 20cm wide by 20cm long, we don’t settle for bare minimum and neither should you, Figuladra being a larger sized snail we like to operate on at least 40cm x 40cm as a minimum, our tanks are much larger, housing many more snails than typical but we believe that to be a good starting point for 2-3 full sized snails. Remember snails can climb so nothing too tall as they can fall and injure themselves. We recommend glass or plastic enclosures as they keep the humidity in while doing a better job at letting out heat. Ventilation is a must as these guys like is damp so opt for something with vent holes or a mesh lid. They don’t have UBV requirements so any natural light or tank light is fine, its simply to keep a day and night cycle, beneficial for all animals as well as your viewing pleasure. Be sure to use a substrate mix that is good for snails, we make our own out of a mix of a few things such as peat moss, topsoil, mushroom compost ect. Add Sphagnum moss to one side to give a source of moisture they can benefit from. Snails generally like it between 20-26 Celsius so keep that in mind when building your tank. Mist the tank as required to keep the humidity between 70%-90% it will vary depending on your tank structure, for us it’s once every day or two.
Food Requirements
Snails are not picky eaters at all! Offer them freshly cut veggies such as cucumber, carrot, sweet potatoes, mushrooms etc in a small flat dish and replace every two days or as required. It’s really important these guys have a calcium source in their diet so a piece of cuttlefish bone works for us but there are plenty of options out there, calcium allows them to build their shells. Occasional protein feeding is also beneficial for the fleshy aspects of the snails growth, we use powdered freeze-dried bloodworms once a week sparingly.
Don’t be afraid to reach out with any questions, we’re in it together!
