Annual review 2021

2021 was a year of renovating old terrariums. I've said goodbye to some species I've had for many years and some new ones have been added.


Aquarium snails

The last Pomacea canaliculata, an old and big animal, has died and this species has left the collection. Four Pomacea glauca remain from the Pomacea family. These have deposited a bright green egg package three times. Since this species is not allowed to be sold, I am not breeding with it.

Other South American apple snails are Marisa cornuarietis and Asolene spixii. In addition, there are the different Lanistes species such as Lanistes cf. ovum, Lanistes nyassanus and Lanistes libycus. The last one I had lost due to a planaria outbreak in their aquarium. In the meantime I have a group of these again. For Pila virescens the counter remains at 1 animal.

New are some Taia naticoides, these take the place of the Tylomelania perfecta which are all gone. They share an aquarium with an ancient Vittina semiconica.


Terrarium snails

In January 8 new terrariums were built. The species placed here have done very well. Until then I had problems breeding with Hadra webbi but it's going pretty smoothly now. To free up space for these new terrariums, the last Lissachatina immaculata immaculata, Lissachatina immaculata panthera and Lissachatina iredalei have gone.

The last Achatina bandeirana has passed away. Six years ago I was able to obtain a few animals and although eggs were laid regularly, the only breeding result was in 2016. This means that the last Achatina species has disappeared from the collection. The Archachatina porphyrostoma group, on the other hand, has done very well. A lot of young were born here.

The various Caracolus species have done well. Caracolus excellens, Caracolus marginella marginella, Caracolus rostrata, Caracolus sagemon 'Gran Piedra' highland form, Caracolus sagemon sp type 4 Cuba striped and dark have had regular young as expected. For the first time, youngsters were also born in the Caracolus sagemon 'Gran Piedra' lowland form group. The small group of Caracolus marginella semiaperta was divided over two new terrariums. In recent years, as many young have been born as older animals have died. But in 2021 the balance was clearly more positive because in both groups several young were born.
The related species Pleurodonte isabella also did well after a year where hardly any young were born.
In 2020 I was able to buy two Acavus haemastoma haemastoma. Unfortunately I lost one animal in August 2021. In October I suddenly saw a young in the terrarium and later a second one. I'm still looking for some animals but these seem to be hard to come by at the moment.

A year and a half ago I bought three Satsuma eucosmia. The first eggs were laid last year. In the meantime, they continued to breed. Some of the young are now half grown, but the young are growing very slowly.

The two Zachrysia guanensis have reached adulthood and have bred some young. Sadly the last Zachrysia provisoria has passed away. Apparently this species is kept less often and it turns out that it is not easy to find new animals.

Laevicaulis sp. Nigeria and Phaedusa paviei have both been given a new terrarium. Although the former is not always easy to find as they often hide underground or between leaves. The Madeiran Leptaxis undata is a very beautiful animal, but so far they have not had any young. The animals themselves have grown up, bigger than I expected.


A new species is Callistoplepa barriana. This species is not often kept and in the meantime several young have been born. It remains to be seen whether everything will go well with this species that cannot withstand high temperatures.

In January I bought some Sarika Sp.. In the end they turned out to be two different species, namely Cryptozona siamensis and Macrochlamys kelantanensis. There was one clutch of the first species, from which several young could be raised. These are now significantly larger than their parents, but have not yet reproduced.
Macrochlamys kelantanensis, on the other hand, breeds quite smoothly, just like the Macrochlamys sp. Sri Lanka which I have had for some time.

Also new are Megalobulimus oblongus and Trochonanina mozambicensis. The original animals of the latter have died, but about twenty tiny youngsters of a few mm in size are crawling around.


The snailroom

In addition to 8 new terrariums, a number of terrariums were also renovated. Much was made with concrete plywood and this was not always the right choice in the long term. Because I had made the terrariums myself, I was also able to strip them and renew them with glass. In addition, a number of terrariums were made for smaller species such as Laevicaulis sp. Nigeria and Phaedusa paviei. Another part of the snailroom consists of the concrete plywood terrariums and these still have to be replaced.