Tympanotonus sp english

Aquarienschnecken.de

Tympanotonus sp. ( fuscatus?) (Linnaeus C., 1758)

Description:

The thick-walled shell of Tympanotonus is up to 7 cm long and 1.8 cm wide. It has a typical siphonal canal on the aperture, which signifies it is a brackish or seawater snail. It has up to at least 12 whorls separated by sutures.

The suture shows a line of small bumps – like a little string of beads. Above the suture there are two spiralling lines showing larger bumps in a row, which, if so, point towards the apex.

The body whorl, ending in the aperture, has 9 or more spiralling lines which form the bumps and lines mentioned in their further course.

The snail has a round operculum with a central nucleus.

Its body color is grey with a light yellow pattern. The eyes are located at the bases of the straight tentacles.




	Body with part of the aperture




		Operculum




		Shell structu

Range:

Tympanotonus can be found in West Africa – Senegal and Angola, from the Atlantic Ocean to brackish waters.

Water parameters:

Brackish and sea water, they are no freshwater snails.

Reproduction:

The male fecundates the female by passing a spermatophor. I could observe that they lay their egg strands of up to 10 cm length on hard substrate. Their spawn consists of an egg strand of several hundred eggs layed in a meandering line. During the summer months at water temperatures of 30 °C (in the aquarium) the snails mate. After only a few days the female sticks the egg strand to the substrate. There were also egg strands following the ground structure, up to 20 cm long, not meandering, but straight.

Socialization/requirements:

Tympanotonus needs at least brackish water to begin with, in accordance with its habitat it can also be kept in sea water, though.

In brackish water with a salinity of 1,012 mg/L it was agile and reproductive.

It does not like to be bothered by fish and feels a lot better in invert tanks without crayfish and spawns there, too.

It moves on every substrate, at times also in the ground, I've never seen it on plants, though. When setting up the tank you should keep its size in mind and also that root plants might be dug out when it's burrowing. The tank should contain wood, algae and loam.

Additional information:

I was stunned by the manifold test series that were performed on Tympanotonus fuscatus and other members of this family.

There were experiments in order to show how long these species can survive when contaminated with a) tobacco waste or b) with gasoline, kerosene and diesel fuel.

During experiment a) it was proved that, depending on the nicotine concentration, the snails die within 24 to 240 hours.

10 healthy snails per beaker were washed and put into the following solutions, the basis being salty water with a salinity of 10%:

0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 1.00, 1.25, 1.50, 1.75 and 2.00 g/l

(unfortunately only a nicotine waste solution is mentioned, no further details are given)

From the concentration of 1g/L the mortality was 100% if the snails were left in the beaker for a good 288 hours. Only from 2.0 g/L 95% of the snails died within 48 hours. All snails tried to flee from the water after first closing their operculum for some time.

During experiment b) a mixture of diesel fuel, gasoline and kerosene was dumped on the water, and here the snails also die indeed, after 48 hours.

This short excursion to the research series of the humans in order to master the "pest" of Tympanotonus in Africa shows us not only that we, the humans, prefer slow methods, no, it also proves how robust these snails are and what they can survive, given that they are kept in salty water, their origi






			Egg strand of Tympanotonus

Weblinks: Systax http://www.biologie.uni-ulm.de/cgi-bin/query_all/details.pl?id=178068&stufe=7&typ=ZOO&sid=T&l ang= d&pr=nix gastropods.com [Shell pictures] http://www.gastropods.com/2/Shell_1612.html shell kwansai [Shell pictures] http://shell.kwansei.ac.jp/~shell/pic_book/data24/r002372.html Fisheries Departement [Laboratory experiments - nicotine] http://www.fao.org/docrep/field/003/AC163E/AC163E00.htm [Parasites found in Tympanotonus] http://209.85.129.104/search?q=cache:EZ2plK6gF2UJ:www.gasat12.org.uk/Web%2520abstracts/ Abstract %252051.doc+tympanotonus+fuscatus&hl=de&ct=clnk&cd=11&gl=de&client=firefox-a Author: Otitoloju A.A. Source: Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety [Experiments on heavy metals] http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/ap/es/2002/00000053/00000003/art00032 Authors: Rosemary I. Egonmwan Pakistan Journal of Biological Sciences Thermal Tolerance and Evaporative Water Loss of the Mangrove Prosobranch [Laboratory experiments on temperature tolerance] This page was actualized on May 18, 2008 Author: Alexandra Behrendt Translator: Ulrike Bauer

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