We had to clean out Ernie's tank today. It's a job we hate but it has to be done! We painstakingly collect all of Ernie's 'pet snails' (did you know he's a snail farmer?!!) from the tank, plants, pebbles etc and put them in a pot so we can put them back into the clean tank.
We do this for two reasons - because I can't bear to send the poor little creatures down the plug hole and because these little guys eat the algae so we don't have to clean the tank out as often with them living in it!
At this point, we'd got several hundred in the snail pot already and we were just scooping out the stragglers left in the tank before we scrubbed it out. I collect them on my hand and then transferred them to the pot when either the hand got full or the little blighters got too tickly! They may be tiny, but 50 tiny snails (as pictured) can be quite tickly when they start moving - only a few had come out of their shells when I took this shot!
I didn't intend the snails to be my photo for today but Ernie wouldn't oblige me with a photo later on, I think he was sulking as he hates the disruption of clean out day almost as much as we do!
Although Ernie isn't in the photo, I've tagged this as I usually tag Ernie so if you want to see him, click the loggerhead tag on the right.
Please excuse my ignorance, I have taken a peek at Ernie, is he a terrapin? Does he not eat the snails? Probably not since you have so many, amazing shot with so many on your hands
@claireuk
Ernie is a loggerhead musk turtle, similar to a terrapin. I think he would eat the snails if he was a normal turtle, but we rescued him after the previous owner abandoned him. He hadn't been looked after well, and although he was around 35 we think when we took him in, he had only ever been fed dry protein pellets, meant for baby turtles to help them grow - he was very overweight back then! We wouldn't have an animal like this in a tank ordinarily, I'd rather seem them in the wild, but he needed a home and we wanted to look after him well. I've seen other pet turtles and terrapins that will eat live food like shrimps and even goldfish, but although we've tried a few different foods, Ernie will only eat his 'turtle sticks' - but the ones we give him are nutritionally balanced and not for young turtles, so he's happy and healthy now.
@roachling Oh that is bittersweet then. Prefer him to be natural but need to protect I fully understand the concept. He has a wonderful character and must give you hours of enjoyment. He is a canny age too. :0)
April 26th, 2014
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They are amazing, I love watching them! By the way, that's my hand, hehe, no children here, I must have child size hands!
Ernie is a loggerhead musk turtle, similar to a terrapin. I think he would eat the snails if he was a normal turtle, but we rescued him after the previous owner abandoned him. He hadn't been looked after well, and although he was around 35 we think when we took him in, he had only ever been fed dry protein pellets, meant for baby turtles to help them grow - he was very overweight back then! We wouldn't have an animal like this in a tank ordinarily, I'd rather seem them in the wild, but he needed a home and we wanted to look after him well. I've seen other pet turtles and terrapins that will eat live food like shrimps and even goldfish, but although we've tried a few different foods, Ernie will only eat his 'turtle sticks' - but the ones we give him are nutritionally balanced and not for young turtles, so he's happy and healthy now.