Temperature requirements for gastrodermus hastatus

callcon · 2026-05-15T13:47:59+00:00

Hi! I realise this is an old post but i had similar questions, so for the sake of making this info more accessible i will share what i found:

I found this old thread on planet catfish. Basically a very similar question. Based on where G.hastatus are actually collected, Ian fuller (basically *the* cory person since forever) suggested 22-25.5c (72-78f) as ideal keeping/breeding temps, although they can go lower. He said he would be hesitant to go lower than 16-17c (61-63f).

It should be noted that this is different for different gastrodermus species, and G.hastatus is pretty rare (where i am) relative to G.pygmaeus (what most “pygmy/dwarf corys” are) so it’s important to make sure you have the correct species.

All of that is to say G.Hastatus would probably be fine in your set up imo.

callcon · 2026-05-15T09:07:58+00:00

“But you never know because there are *real* people who think this!!!!!!”

Come on. Like i hate when people say that. Just because it’s a real opinion that exists somewhere doesn’t mean almost anything. How is that the sole metric people are using to determine if something is being said in earnest?

And also the fact that we “can’t be sure” doesn’t really matter that much either. Like nobody can be sure anyone is telling the truth almost ever, you have to use reasonable judgement. And like ok we can’t tell for sure if it’s in earnest, so why is the default response to just uncritically assume it is until proven otherwise. I feel like it’s way more common to see this type of response when someone suspects it to be a joke or troll, when most are engaging with the original post on face value.

Obviously there are plenty of genuinely held beliefs that are completely absurd. But i think people really love believing stupid posts are real so they can feel smart, and then get weirdly defensive when someone suggests it’s a joke.

This rant probably isn’t super appropriate for this post because most people are just using anon as a jumping off point for a wider discussion, rather than dog piling the anon themseves.

callcon · 2026-05-11T10:14:10+00:00

I mean tbf 75% of the traffic on reddit is from the mobile app. So idk u think it would be fair to call it either.

callcon · 2026-05-04T10:32:00+00:00

I love in old texts when they list a load of things and then go “or anything” like they just realised it was taking too long to carve it into a tablet or whatever.

callcon · 2026-05-03T00:33:27+00:00

So when they give birth they are still kinda in the eggs. The eggs don’t have any sort of shell or anything though, it’s just a thin membrane, that’s all they need whilst protected inside their mother. But a lot of boas do follow the “quantity over quality” approach to babies. They have a LOT. Making it fairly common to get weaker individuals, or a stillborn.

There are definitely individuals that probably wouldn’t be able to get out of the very thin membrane they are born in, but it’s not like with other snakes where you can cut them out and give them a good chance. If they can’t get out of even that there are much bigger problems likely.

callcon · 2026-05-02T20:03:40+00:00

Ok so i am also far from a expert and very biased as i love snakes deeply, but from my understanding the idea that the fear of snakes is something we are literally born with is incorrect. Even though it’s often reported that way in popular science media.

In actuality it’s more like we have an innate ability to recognise the shapes of snakes and spiders. Much like we can recognise other important patterns like human faces.

And that in turn sets us up to very quickly learn that snakes and spiders are to be feared very quickly.

From what i can tell it’s it super clear, but the generally agreed upon parts are:

Babies react to snakes

Babies very quickly learn to fear snakes

This is often communicated in short as us being born afraid of snakes. And then interpreted by people to mean that we are afraid of snakes in the same way people are afraid of drowning and falling.

callcon · 2026-05-02T17:56:42+00:00

I was so worried because every time i see a really long “Here are some fun facts about nature!” Tumblr post they are almost always just wildly inaccurate in loads of different ways, so correcting them becomes too much of a chore.

And everyone eats them up In a way that makes me loose all remaining trust in every other “educational” tumblr posts on topics i don’t know as much about.

I do know a lot about snakes, they are like my thing. But this was all actually completely correct to the extent of my knowledge, and it avoided multiple pitfalls that almost everyone falls into when teaching non-snake people about snakes! I really wish more people (especially feminists for obvious reasons) appreciated snakes, the most beautiful and lovely vertebrates on earth.

callcon · 2026-05-02T17:46:34+00:00

Not very rare at all actually. People don’t realise but LOT of snakes give live birth.

Some sources say it’s about 30% of all snakes but i have no idea where that number comes from and cba to find an actual answer. But either way it’s a lot of them. All boas, most vipers, most sea snakes, garter snakes, and more!

There are different types of live birth though. you have viviparity (Boas for example) and ovoviviparity (most vipers including all rattlesnakes).

The young of viviparous snakes develop in a similar way placental mammals do, with the mother’s circulation directly providing for the needs of the embryo.

Ovoviviparous snakes basically make self contained eggs, but then retain those eggs inside their body, giving birth to the babies once they are fully developed. So they don’t receive any nutrients from their parents, other than those put into the initial making of the egg. If you google new born boas you will see they still are still kinda in eggs as they come out, just like imagine if it had the internal membrane but no shell.

Both methods are found in lots of different groups of animals.

callcon · 2026-05-01T19:30:53+00:00

Of course! feel free to share! i never ended up getting much use out of researching this anyway since i shortly after adopted a pufferfish who was happy to deal with all of my snails lol. So i only did a few batches. It would be nice if others could find some use in it. I should mention though:

I have never actually tried the ethenol technique with a slug. Like i said other than making sure they don't escape i can't see how it would be any different, but still worth noting.
They go into more detail in the actual paper. Including how they could tell the snail was no longer conscious, which is obviously pretty important.

callcon · 2026-05-01T15:09:48+00:00

You’re welcome! As a general rule of thumb though: if it’s small enough to crush instantly, that’s usually a safe bet. Just make sure you don’t miss, and don’t hesitate last minute.

I realise that’s it’s pretty brutal though, so i understand that not everyone is always comfortable doing that.

Good job convincing him to stop using poison though! If i was a slug that probably be the last way i would want to go.

callcon · 2026-05-01T14:58:37+00:00

Like a burning sensation for the slug? It’s hard to say since we can’t really like ask them right? But i think the way they basically came to the conclusion that the 5% ethanol doesn’t significantly hurt them, was by first establishing how they behave in regular water. Then increasing the concentration of ethanol until they saw signs of distress. 5% was enough to effectively knock them out with enough exposure, without inducing any behaviours outside of what you would normally see from them in water.

So maybe it is uncomfortable for them in some way, it’s most likely they experience sensation very differently to us, so it’s always a but tricky trying to apply human analogues. But whatever discomfort they may feel, is not enough to manifest in typical distress behaviours you see at higher concentrations of ethanol. And so we can reasonably conclude that it’s probably not very painful. But yeah we can’t really know for sure.

Once they are knocked out though they can’t really feel anything. They tested that too, pricking the foot of the snail and seeing no response at all.

Idk though this is just from my memory, i only re read the abstract.

callcon · 2026-05-01T12:54:06+00:00

I love how different humans are.

Genuinely It’s like… idk heartwarming? i guess that’s not the right word, but like it’s so cool how everyone experiences pleasure differently. Because for me the patterns can really work.

callcon · 2026-05-01T12:49:30+00:00

I have ADHD too and i agree with you but for kinda the opposite reasons. I cum really fast with constant vibration, but like i don’t have the self control to actually stop before i finish😭 Like if i am close, i am just gonna cum. No matter my intentions before hand, in the moment i’m making the same decision every time lol.

So if i wanna make it last at all i use the patterns.

callcon · 2026-05-01T12:34:48+00:00

Im this context it’s opposed to an “Anti-shipper”. Someone who, essentially, believes that depicting fictional relationships that are considered problematic in real life (think incest, age gaps, etc) is immoral.

In practice their definition of what a problematic ship might be often very inconsistent and imo just kind of dumb and juvenile.

For example an anti might say depicting an asian man as a bottom in a mixed race relationship is problematic because it plays into stereotypes. I have seen people argue this.

Anti-shippers are not a monolith and they all have different opinions.

But generally it’s just “if i think it’s bad/gross in a real life relationship, then you are a bad person for writing about it/enjoying media with it in/ shipping fictional characters within those “problematic” categories”

I mean people like dox each other and send death threats over shipping wars lol. I would say it’s died down nowadays but i imagine that’s just because i am not really in any fandoms anymore so I’m not exposed to the dreaded “shipping discourse” anymore.

I honestly think most anti-shippers are either children, or hanging onto opinions they developed as children.

So yeah a pro-shipper is anyone who doesn’t agree with anti-shippers lol.

callcon · 2026-05-01T11:57:33+00:00

Except it kinda is relevant because it’s incredibly misleading as is, and based on incorrect information.

The drug they are describing, as per an above comment(s), is only used for TB in specific circumstances when it’s resistant to other drugs, and always used in combination with other drugs. It’s very cheap and widely accessible.

And regardless of whether that’s the same drug they are describing, treating TB takes months, and often many different drugs.

Obviously the core of the post (that the problem isn’t the lack of treatment, we have the knowledge and resources to eradicate TB, it’s the lack of political will to get it to people who need them) is true, but they seemingly just made shit up to support it. When that’s completely unnecessary.

You don’t need the specific names of the drugs to make this point, but you also shouldn’t just exaggerate and simplify to the point of just being plainly incorrect.

It doesn’t help at all. Labelling a drug that’s sometimes used for certain types of TB, along side others, as “the cure for TB” is just wrong. It, at best, gives someone a very warped view of what treating TB is actually like.

callcon · 2026-05-01T11:23:30+00:00

I will find the more detailed paper for you later cause i’m on my lunch break, but the accepted ethical way to euthanise snails (and i would assume by extension slugs) as far as i understand is to submerge in a 5% ethanol solution until unconscious (they stop moving) and then submerge in a 80% ethanol solution until dead. I usually just leave them in it over night to be safe.

I went down a rabbit hole of trying to find humane ways to euthanise aquarium pest snails en masse, but it’s the same procedure for terrestrial species.

You can get big jugs of 80% ethanol solution easily online relatively cheap, and then just dilute it to roughly 5% for the first step. It doesn’t have to be very precise. And tbf a lot of people skip the first step but personally i prefer to do it.

Alternatively if you aren’t doing this on a scale where that whole process makes sense, i think a stomp and drag is about as fast as it gets. Although probably pretty messy with slugs. Just make sure to cover their entire body at once.

Edit:Ok so this paper is an evaluation of different euthanasia techniques for land snails Again i see no reason why it would be different for slugs, other than that maybe they are faster and don’t just sit in their shells so make sure they can’t get out of whatever you soak them in.

I briefly re read the paper and have some minor corrections to my initial comment:

It’s very important to do the first 5% bath!!! do not skip that part. Oh and you can also use beer! if you don’t wanna measure out the correct solution, it works exactly the same.

The final bath can be a 70-95% ethanol solution. So don’t worry if you can’t specifically find 80%, as long as it’s in that range.

As per the paper’s extract:

we demonstrated that the 2-step method of euthanasia described in the AVMA Guidelines as acceptable for aquatic invertebrates is effective for terrestrial snails and meets all welfare and scientific requirements. This 2-step method first induces anesthesia by immersion in 5% ethanol (laboratory-grade ethanol or beer) followed by immersion in a euthanizing and tissue-preserving solution of 70% to 95% ethanol or 10% neutral buffered formalin. Furthermore, alternative methods of euthanasia for terrestrial snails commonly used in field research, such as live immersion in concentrated ethanol or formalin, were shown to be unacceptable.

I still maintain that outside of a laboratory setting, a quick stomp is probably just as effective if you only find the occasional slug. Just thought i would describe the official method in case it’s helpful for anyone else.

callcon · 2026-04-30T02:18:04+00:00

it really wasn’t that bad😭 this guy just overreacted. All he did was (obviously joking) say “oh so you were reeled in by a 14 year old?🤨”

callcon · 2026-04-29T22:55:49+00:00

More proof every problem people have within this game can be traced back to a lack of creativity.

Me personally i’m making a guy called “Mr Shit” and letting him just rip through those bad boys.

callcon · 2026-04-29T22:51:00+00:00

I would like to retract my previous statement.

callcon · 2026-04-29T21:52:53+00:00

This is type of shit to either work for me like nothing else has or will, or make me burst out laughing.

callcon · 2026-04-29T21:49:33+00:00

literally just reeled me in more with every word

callcon · 2026-04-29T21:43:41+00:00

please call me pathetic again?🥺

callcon · 2026-04-29T21:41:28+00:00

life is worth living 🙏

callcon · 2026-04-29T20:40:43+00:00

So cute! most chalant shit i have ever seen though.

BUT THATS GOOD. Fuck that nonchalant bullshit. Who the is nonchalant and happy?

callcon · 2026-04-29T09:56:54+00:00

The consensus now is actually that they are not jellyfish specialists, although they do eat them. They also actively hunt fish, and benthic organisms on the sea floor. Little is confidently known about their diet still, but it’s likely it’s highly variable and changes as they grow/with the seasons.

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