Mollusks Monthly

A new magnificent mollusk every month.

 Snails

 

Snails are one of the most commonly known mollusks. They are a close relative of the slug. Snails and slugs are gastropods. 

A gastropod is a mollusk with a large foot, the foot is the bottom of their body that touches the ground. Most gastropods have a one piece shell that looks like a spiral or a cone.

Some snails, like the freshwater apple snail, have a lung-gill combo, meaning they can breathe both above water and underwater.

Pictured above is a black mystery snail(bottom) with an ivory mystery snail(top), also known as apple snails.

Land snails eat leaves, bark, fruit, and decomposing animals, while underwater snails eat the algae on the rocks. So in other words, land snails are omnivores and some underwater snails are herbivores and carnivores. In case you're wondering, omnivore means that an animal eats meat and plants, while herbivore means that an animal just eats plants, and carnivore means that an animal just eats meat.

I had all four colors of the mystery snail(apple snail), which were: 

1. Black
2. Golden
3. Blue
4. Ivory

Some of my snails had babies, and when they hatched they were very tiny and cute, and they looked like very miniature versions of the adults with the shell and all.

 Dash-Skarloey