Habitat

The pond snails can be found in a variety of aquatic plant-rich standing waters. As the water body dries out, it is able to persist in the muddy substrate, densely sealing the shell with a filmy cover. Can only live in hard water. Pond snails extract lime from the water, which is needed to build the shell. Pond snails can live in all bodies of water – lakes, ponds, ditches, irrigation canals and rivers – where the substrate is lime or other minerals.

Diet

In standing water, decaying organic matter and microscopic organisms sediment on submerged trunks, rocks or grass. Large pond snails eat these remains of animal bodies, waste, bacteria and algae.

Important and interesting facts

The shell is slender-conical, spirally twisted to the right, dark greenish-grey or yellow-grey. The pond snails are common throughout Latvia, found on aquatic plants, various substrates and soils.

The large pond snail and other pond snails were used in the first ecological experiment in Latvia, carried out under the direction of Professor Naum Gregor Lebedinskis in 1922. The aim of the experiment was to prove that after prolonged exposure to air, the eggs are not traumatised and the small snails are able to hatch and develop. The experiment was carried out on train and aeroplane. The egg cocoons were attached to a wooden stick and held out of the window when travelling by train, and placed on a glass plate held in the hand over the side of the aircraft when travelling by aeroplane. The pond snail eggs were then placed in an aquarium, where they successfully developed.

The conclusion was clear: the eggs survive in such “trips” relatively easily. Therefore snails living in water can spread passively with the help of water birds. This was the subject of a paper published in 1924 entitled “Desiccation resistance of snail eggs”.

Large pond snails can be kept in an aquarium. They move slowly along the glass and use their sharp radula to kill the algae growing on the glass.

Information sources: redzet.eu, latvijasdaba.lv, Wikipedia

Photos: pixabay.com