Asolene (Asolene) pulchella snails. (picture not licenced under creative commons)

Asolene (Asolene) pulchella snails. (picture not licenced under creative commons)

Shell: The relative robust shell of Asolene pulchella has a pointed top and the aperture (shell opening) is oval in shape, in which the corneous operculum can be retracted. The sutures are relatively flat and the umbilicus is of medium size.
The shell surface is smooth and has a yellow base colour with sharp, dark brown spiral stripes on it. These dark band are mainly located at the underside of the shell (near the umbilicus), giving the shell a dark apperance when seen from the underside and a light colour from above.
Operculum: The corneous, medium thick operculum is concentric in construction with the nucleus located near the center of the shell (towards the columella).

Body: ?

Eggs: The eggs are deposited below the water surface on objects or vegetation and are embedded in a gelatinous mass.

Asolene (Asolene) pulchella eggs. Note that these eggs are taken out of the water. (picture not licenced under creative commons)

Personal experiences with Asolene puelcha by Helen Racz Lorenz (http://moluscos.net/comer/hrl/):
Asolene puelcha spawns under the water, wrapping the eggs in a sticky gelatine parcel, which keep them united and protected until the birth. By this way, they keep themselves attached to the aquatic plants, for a period of approx. 20 days.
The development of the sprawning frequently fails when the environment conditions are not in perfect balance, as they are weak to some aquatic parasites that eat the small embryo before birth. These parasites are red earthworms of about 4 to 5 mm, extremely thin (like a hair). They perforate the gelatine mass, reaching the eggs easily. One can find even up to 20 earthworms in a small egg mass.Once they are born, the hatchlings are vulnerable to many natural enemies, like crustacea, mosquito larvae and dragon-flies, both very are voracious predators. For this reason while growing in captivity this species must be protected by covering their habitat (I mean the place where they have been placed for growing- in my experience a fish-globe) with a tulle cloth, to avoid these "annoying lodgers".
The basic food is the lettuce, but they also like the green pulp of the water-melon, (with minimum or nothing of saccharose), they do not like the red part of this fruit. It is essential for their normal growth and the hardness of their shell to add calciumcarbonate to their diet. We provide this by adding sea shells (with no enamel) in the water.

Behaviour:
Habitat:
Distribution: Uruguay and Argentina.
Similar to: Asolene spixi.

Except where otherwise noted, this page is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License . http://www.applesnail.net