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Cipangopaludina japonica (v. Martens, 1860)
Trivial names:
Japanese mystery snail,
Japanese Black snail ,
Japanese trapdoor snail
Descprition:
The shell is up to 5 cm long and has 6 to 7 pronouncedly globose whorls with a flattish shoulder. The suture is very deep. Female individuals have been found with a length of up to 6.5 cm.
The thick-walled shell is smooth and varies from light green to dark olive in color. There are no bands. The aperture is mostly round, there are slightly oval variants, though.
The small round navel is partially covered by the slightly bulging parietal lip. The black pigmentation on the entire lip and the aperture is particularly striking. The columnella is narrow and globose.
The thin concentric operculum has an excentric nuclues..
Range/Habitat:
Cipangopaludina japonica originates from Burma, Thailand, South Vietnam, China, Korea, Japan, the Phillipines and Java. It is found in lakes, ponds, feeder trenches and ditches, wherever there is some sort of mucky substrate.
Most of the time they lie or move inside the muck, the females also release their offspring there.
Water parameters:
Unfortunately, the editor does not have any exact data on this. However, considering their range we can safely assume that they do well at temperatures between 18 and 38 °C, depending on seasonal fluctuations.
Reproduction:
They probably reproduce all year round. For more exact data please refer to Viviparus contectus
Food:
Plinski et al. (1978) reported on zooplancton and phytoplancton he had found in the stomaches of some species from North American lakes.
For more exact data please refer to Viviparus contectus
Keeping in the aquarium:
These snails mainly live in the substrate as far as that is possible. They prefer mucky ground. If they have this possibility they are inconspicuous and retreat there when molested.
They can be kept in aquariums with a length of 50 cm upwards. However, there should be enough filtering food as well as food in the form of tablets (with animal protein) and vegetables.
It needs wood in its tank, a larger stone for climbing, at best a mucky area or at least fine sand. Moreover they need dense vegetation.
They do not need a current. In the warm summer months the tank should be aerated, though.
Socialization in the aquarium:
They should not be socialized with snails from the Pomacea complex, and keeping them together with other filter feeders like the zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) is not recommendable either. Not because they molest each other, but Cipangopaludina would not find enough food under these circumstances.
As with the other viviparidae the sex ratio should be balanced. One male should be co-housed with at least two females.
In the Cipangopaludina tank there should not be any predators like crayfish, large cichlids et.al.
Additional information:
Around 1892, Japanese Cipangopaluda were imported to America after being sold on a Chinese market (Holz 1892). These snails, bred or gathered as food in Asia, were soon reproducing successfully in California (Clench and Fuller). If they were released to the wild by accident is unknown. They were finally found in the Niagara river (Schmeck 1942).
In 1942, Eugene H. Schmeck found a large population of Cipangopaludina chinensis malleata in the Niagara river close to Cayuga Island. Schmeck assumed that this population could be attributed to a few tank-kept snails accidentally released to the wild. He was living on this island in 1931. (Schmeck 1942, Robertson and Blakeslee 1948).
Cipangopaludina was also found in big lakes, Sandusky Bay, Lake Erie and Ohio River.
During the 1940s Cipangopaludina japonica were fed to catfish (Wolfert and Hiltunen 1968). They reached a population density so high that fishermen often hauled 2 tons of snails with one single catch. (Wolfert and Hiltunen 1968).
Since then they have spread to large parts of the US. They can be found in big lakes, in Michigan and Indiana, Lake Erie and Ohio River.
Parasites:
They can transmit Metacercariae: Echinostoma cinetorchis,Echinocasmus elongatus, E. redioduplicatus, E. rugosus, Eupariphium ilocanum, E. recurvatum, Echinostoma macrorchis und E. cinetorchis.
We blinks:
[ Shell pictures, information on size and species location ]
Shell picture
Fact Sheets fisheries commision
[ Way of spreading ]
[ Verbreitungsweg der Schnecken ]
[ Origins, habitat ]
[ Range, species information ]
[ Parasites ]
Zoological Studies, June 5, 2002, diverser zoologischer Institute
[ research on the variability of Cipangopaludina chinensis]
This page was actualized on July 7, 2007
Author:Alexandra Behrendt
Translator: Ulrike Bauer
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