Aquarienschnecken.de

Pachymelania fusca (Gmelin, 1791)

Description:

The thick-walled, strongly sculptured shell is about 4 cm long and 1.5 cm wide. Especially Pachymelania fusca is highly variable in shape. The paucispiral operculum has a basal, excentric nucleus. The coloration varies in different shades of brown.

Range/Habitat:

It lives in the brackish waters of river mouths and is also found in lagoons close to the sea. On the Ivory Coast in the alluvial mud of the tidelands, only covered by a few millimeters of water, together with Tympanotonus fuscatus

 Mangroves, Senegal

Reproduction:

Their reproductive period starts during the dry season (December to April). Other than Melanoides sp. well-known to aquarists, the female Pachymelania does not bear "developed" snails – this has been proved at least for P.aurita and P. fusca.

After taking in the sperm the eggs are fecundated, the development takes place inside the mother snail up to the larval stage. Then the mother snail beds the larvae on plancton.

This phase takes about 7 days, after that the young snails live on the ground; this is not 100% sure, however, as there are two contradictory statements in literature – one says that larvae are released and bedded on plancton, the other says that egg strands are bedded on plancton (authors from AJAO and FAGADE)

Food:

The weak teeth and the fringed mantle border hint towards a filter feeder, which means that they eat microplancton. Sometimes they'll also feed on vegetables and moss balls in the aquarium.

Additional information:

This snail can be found in various sediments, however, always in substrates rich in plant substance. The salinity in these regions varies between 0.02% and 15%. Its habitat is often in full sun. P. fusca can survive for 4 to 6 months without water.

The salinity varies over the year between 0 and 27%, at a concentration of 27.5% they don't survive longer than 22 days.

Disease transmission

The fact that this snail can transmit flukes causing bilharziosis should not be neglected.

Literature:

GLAUBRECHT, M. (1996): Evolutionsökologie und Systematik am Beispiel von Süß- und Brackwasserschnecken (Mollusca: Caenogastropoda: Cerithioidea): Ontogenese-Strategien, paläontologische Befunde und historische Zoogeographie. Backhuys Publishers, Leiden, NL. ISBN 90-73348-52-8.

[ Morphology, anatomy, reproductive biology – in German ]

Translation by Mathias Stein on the basis of:

 ZABI (G.S.JJ)et LE LOEWF(P.) > 1992 - Revue des connaissances sur la fauna benthique des millieux margino-litto-raux dÁfrique d´louest. 1- Biologie etecologie des especes.Rev., Hydrobiol.tropp., 25(3):207-249. Auf diesem Wege, vielen Dank :)

[ Detailed information about the habitat, anatomy, range and salinity ]

Web links

 sys tax

 gastropods. com

 members.aol.com/Mkohl2/Afropleuros.html

Author: Alexandra Behrendt Translator: Ulrike Bauer

This page was actualized on September 1, 2008

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