View Full Version : hatching baby snails
jamiya0727
05-23-2009, 12:08 PM
Hello all. I have lurked here a few times but never posted. I have a mystery snail in a 6-gallon tank with a few fish. Yesterday, the snail crawled up into the hood and I jokingly told my husband that I read that they do that to lay eggs. Well, I guess I wasn't joking because there's a cluth of eggs in there this morning.
We only have the one snail. Can these eggs possibly be fertile? If not, then the rest of my questions are moot.
If so, I would like to keep some, but I probably can't keep them all. I was reading the other thread about the egg clutches, so I gather I can remove some and freeze and dispose. But what do I do with the ones I want to keep? Do I wait for them to hatch and then move them? Or can I put the clutch in another container now?
Once they hatch, what do they need? Does it need to be a filtered tank? Should the water line be low? How many snails in how many gallons?
How long do they take to hatch? Egads! The kids and I are leaving on vacation in a week, but my husband will be home. I wouldn't want to miss them hatching, though!
Anywhere you can point me for snail raising info would be appreciated!
Jamiya
SunshinePuppies
05-23-2009, 1:30 PM
with briggs you need a male and female for babies.
you should keep the water down a few inches since the female will lay eggs even if they're not fertile, and you don't want to have her to leave the tank. If you would like babies, I would say buy a bigger tank and get a male from one of the members here.
jamiya0727
05-23-2009, 2:03 PM
The eggs are in a honeycomb arrangment and are white, if that helps identify the species.
BettaFishMommy
05-23-2009, 5:28 PM
i agree that if your snail is a brigg it requires both genders to lay fertile eggs.
as long as you don't have any snail eating fish in the tank you can use it for raising the snails. i would upgrade to a larger tank, at least a ten gallon, if you plan on keeping more than just a couple of the babies.
if you are running a hob filter, put a sponge or a netting of some sort (pantyhose works) over the intake tube of your filter so that the lil snails don't get sucked up.
best thing to feed all your snails is snail jello. there are a few recipes kicking around AC if you do a search you should find them. they don't require any special foods, other than what you would feed momma snail.
how long ago did you get this snail? there is a possibility that the eggs are fertile if you got the snail from a tank that had other briggs in it, and you got your snail not long ago.
if you could post a photo of either momma snail or the egg clutch, that can help us determine what type of apple snail it is.
i agree that if your snail is a brigg it requires both genders to lay fertile eggs.
as long as you don't have any snail eating fish in the tank you can use it for raising the snails. i would upgrade to a larger tank, at least a ten gallon, if you plan on keeping more than just a couple of the babies.
if you are running a hob filter, put a sponge or a netting of some sort (pantyhose works) over the intake tube of your filter so that the lil snails don't get sucked up.
best thing to feed all your snails is snail jello. there are a few recipes kicking around AC if you do a search you should find them. they don't require any special foods, other than what you would feed momma snail.
how long ago did you get this snail? there is a possibility that the eggs are fertile if you got the snail from a tank that had other briggs in it, and you got your snail not long ago.
if you could post a photo of either momma snail or the egg clutch, that can help us determine what type of apple snail it is.
We're lucky you have the time to answer everything, BFM, regardless of whether the questions are moot due to circumstances or not.:iagree:
Filters are extremely important unless you want to cope with their wastes through daily water changes. Baby brigs require softer foods and in smaller quantities only. Veggies must be blanched first so they can chew through easily. Waterline doesn't have to be low anymore as they are too young to utilize the space for spawning yet.
Hatching depends on the temperature and humidity of the environment. I'd say two to five weeks would be the range although assuming the environment is quite warm and humid, then two to three weeks will be the norm. My shortest hatching record was 10 days involving the canas.
BettaFishMommy
05-23-2009, 7:39 PM
We're lucky you have the time to answer everything, BFM, regardless of whether the questions are moot due to circumstances or not.:iagree:
lol Lup, i'm turning into a snail guru of sorts.........
msjinkzd
05-23-2009, 7:55 PM
Also, how long have you had the snail? The females can store sperm for months so if you have not had it for longer than 3 months, they could be fertile.
jamiya0727
05-23-2009, 10:04 PM
We got the snail in December, so it has been about 5 months. I don't know what species she is - the pet stores are remarkably uninformed. Attached are two photos of her - one not too long after we got her, and one more recently when her shell started to have problems. She is growing really, really fast. The last picture is obviously of her eggs. Sorry about the photo quality.
FastFly67
05-23-2009, 10:09 PM
do you know what Ph your tankwater is? more than likely she's got insufficient diet and acidic water which is not good for her shell
Lupin
05-23-2009, 10:11 PM
She's definitely a Pomacea diffusa/bridgesii!
NilsBaees
05-23-2009, 10:14 PM
She's definitely a Pomacea diffusa/bridgesii!
her eggs sure look different from mine! is it just the color of the snail itself? bcs those look WAY different
Lupin
05-23-2009, 10:22 PM
her eggs sure look different from mine! is it just the color of the snail itself? bcs those look WAY different
The egg color changes as time progresses. Her pic was taken a little earlier or shortly after the snail laid her eggs compared to yours which may have been around for a few hours already. They should turn almost blue indicating hatching is near.
jamiya0727
05-23-2009, 10:24 PM
I just tested the water - pH looks like 7.6 with the regular test and 7.4 with the high range pH test. There's algae growing in the tank and she also eats algae wafers. I feed the fish tropical fish food and about once or twice a week they get bloodworms.
What else should I be feeding her? I kept worrying that the water was not hard enough, but the pet store said my water was fine. She's growing a lot (and laying eggs) so I didn't know what to do. I get so frustrated trying to get proper information!
jamiya0727
05-23-2009, 10:25 PM
The egg color changes as time progresses. Her pic was taken a little earlier or shortly after the snail laid her eggs compared to yours which may have been around for a few hours already. They should turn almost blue indicating hatching is near.
Actually, I saw her up in the hood last night, and this morning is when I saw the eggs. So they were probably there for a good 10-12 hours. They look pretty white to me.
BettaFishMommy
05-23-2009, 11:02 PM
they will darken as they get older/develop. sometimes a clutch looks like the grossest thing right before it hatches.
you might think about making snail jello for her. there are a few recipes here on AC. just use the search feature and type in 'snail jello', without the quotation marks, of course, lol.
NilsBaees
05-24-2009, 12:10 AM
they will darken as they get older/develop. sometimes a clutch looks like the grossest thing right before it hatches.
you might think about making snail jello for her. there are a few recipes here on AC. just use the search feature and type in 'snail jello', without the quotation marks, of course, lol.
I completely agree. The first picture is of one of my clutches (that looks very different from yours), and the second one is my clutch "look[ing] like the grossest thing" before hatching. It really is gross. NOTE: the gross-looking clutch has a big dried ugly spot because my light fixture accidentally crushed a bit of it. For the overall idea of pre-hatching grossness, look at the non-crushed part.
Here is the recipe for snail jello, and a lot of other healthy snail foods. I just started making snail jello, and they are all over it!
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=135871&highlight=snail+jello
Good luck with the hatching! I always saw my snails mating, but I can't afford to raise more than two snails in my tank, so I didn't feed them extra, raise the temperature, or lower the water level to try to get them to lay. But she laid two clutches anyway. And I was waiting to ship them off to someone, and did NOT do anything special again, and one of them hatched. I have over 200 beautiful baby snails that I will ship out later now. Today I even discovered another clutch! So I think that if you keep doing all the right stuff, yours will hatch for sure (since mine hatched without me doing anything). :) Good luck again!
First pic looks like grapes.:drool:
jamiya0727
05-24-2009, 11:06 AM
So I think that if you keep doing all the right stuff, yours will hatch for sure (since mine hatched without me doing anything). :) Good luck again!
Except that I only have one snail, so it's very possible these eggs have not been fertilized. I have female birds that lay eggs all the time, but with no males they certainly will never hatch!
BettaFishMommy
05-24-2009, 2:46 PM
there may be a slight chance that the eggs are fertile, but if you have had the snail since December i would be hedging on them not being fertile. if you are able and willing to care for a lot (and i mean a lot! clutches can yield many babies) of snails, then leave the clutch there. if it is fertile, they will most likely hatch and if it isn't you can take it off the hood and toss it in the garbage. i'd leave it up there for at least a month to determine if it's a viable clutch or not.
snoopy65
05-24-2009, 3:09 PM
there may be a slight chance that the eggs are fertile, but if you have had the snail since December i would be hedging on them not being fertile. if you are able and willing to care for a lot (and i mean a lot! clutches can yield many babies) of snails, then leave the clutch there. if it is fertile, they will most likely hatch and if it isn't you can take it off the hood and toss it in the garbage. i'd leave it up there for at least a month to determine if it's a viable clutch or not.
I agree, and when she says alot, she means between 50 and 200 and there is no way of telling how many until they hatch.
BettaFishMommy
05-24-2009, 3:32 PM
yep, a small/medium clutch hatched out in my tank once and it yielded at least 100 snails. my survival rate was about 25% due to my ignorance at the time. my survival rate on recent clutches has been much, much higher.
NilsBaees
05-24-2009, 3:59 PM
oh right, sorry. as someone else said before they can store sperm for a long time, but I'm guessing this is just a normal female behavior (like chickens laying eggs we eat I guess). are you going to buy a male?
BettaFishMommy
05-24-2009, 10:56 PM
unless jamiya is prepared to have many, many, many snails, i would discourage getting any more of the same snail for their tank. i've allowed clutches to hatch out a few times and each time i learn more and each time i end up with more babies than the last time, lol.
if you do decide to get a male and try your hand at breeding these beautiful lil shellkids, i would have a tank set up just for them, say a 10 gallon, and that way you can have that tank be perfect for just them as far as water parameters, ph, feeding, etc. this will most likely heighten your success rate and will make breeding briggs much more enjoyable.
jamiya0727
05-25-2009, 9:59 PM
Thanks for all the info! No, I do not plan to buy another snail or breed them, at least not at this time. I do love the little critters, though!
jamiya0727
07-08-2009, 2:25 PM
So....I destroyed the original clutch of eggs and the next one as well. But another was laid while I was on vacation and I didn't notice it for a while because it was hidden in the hood of the aquarium. I thought surely they are not fertile since we only have one snail, and we have had her since December, so I didn't feel there was a rush to get them out of there. Silly me. They hatched, and now I am picking snails out of the tank and putting them in their own container.
I am going to go buy a small tank for them so they can have a filter and heater and such, and then I will probably give them to the pet store when they are old enough.
What size tank is sufficient? How big should they be before I give them away? It's going to kill me to give them away, but surely I can't keep them all, right? What do I feed them?
If anyone here wants them, I would happy to mail them rather than sending them to the pet store. They are all golden snails.
Thanks all. I'm going to go browse other posts for info, but I thought you'd might like to know that apparently they can store sperm for 6-7 months....
Jamiya
A 20g will accommodate every snail you have until you grow them up. Let them reach pea size. As these are no longer restricted from shipping, you could ship from egg clutches to adults. It is best though to let them grow for awhile until you can ship them.
jamiya0727
07-08-2009, 11:13 PM
Okay, I have them set up in a small tank (critter keeper) with a filter now, but the water is not staying warm enough. My heater is too big for the little tank. What can I do? My regular tank is only 6 gallons, and it stays warm enough just from the fluorescent light being on during the day. The heater hasn't cycled on since last winter. Are there heaters small enough for a critter keeper? If I put a heating pad under the tank, there won't be any regulation to shut it off if it gets too warm. Suggestions?
BettaFishMommy
07-08-2009, 11:24 PM
put a table lamp with an incandescent bulb in it over the critter keeper, as long as the bulb of the lamp is not close to the 'tank'. by close i mean 6-8 inches or less. might help some. or you could just go out and get a heater and a bigger tank..........lol.
they could probably do fine in room temperature water in that critter keeper as long as your house isn't too cool. summer is here after all. put a floating thermometer in there and see what the temp is throughout the course of a day. it would probably be fine.
don't use a heating pad, too much of a risk of ending up with miniature cooked escargot.
Lupin
07-08-2009, 11:37 PM
don't use a heating pad, too much of a risk of ending up with miniature cooked escargot.
:barf:
jamiya0727
07-08-2009, 11:40 PM
The temp started out around 74 degrees and has dropped to 70 degrees now. Is that too cold? We have our house set at 70 degrees, but there is a lot of variation from room to room.
Lupin
07-08-2009, 11:52 PM
I'd maintain the temperature to 74-76 degrees.
BettaFishMommy
07-09-2009, 12:05 AM
Lupin is right, that is an optimal temperature for snails. i've noticed in a tank that holds the temp at a constant 80 the snails grow much much faster and are much more prolific in their snail porn, lol.
Lupin
07-09-2009, 12:10 AM
Lupin is right, that is an optimal temperature for snails. i've noticed in a tank that holds the temp at a constant 80 the snails grow much much faster and are much more prolific in their snail porn, lol.
Unfortunately this also results in extremely thin shells that make the snails very vulnerable to shell damages.:(
BettaFishMommy
07-09-2009, 12:33 AM
not so, i just had a blue 'jump' off the top of a tank onto a floor that is concrete directly under the lino and no shell damage whatsoever. i swear i have kevlar snails, lol. this snail was in the 80F tank pretty much since birth.
jamiya0727
07-09-2009, 1:06 PM
I just called a pet store to see if they have a small heater that would fit, and the guy actually told me that I shouldn't bother to spend the money on a bunch of snails, and if they die it doesn't matter. Sheesh! Shouldn't people who work in pet stores actually like animals?
I have a light over the tank now, but I'm at work. When my daughter gets home I will call her and see where the temp is. If it's not coming up, I'll pick up the heater.
Thanks for the info!
jamiya0727
07-09-2009, 5:56 PM
The light is working, but the tank will cool down at night when I turn it off. Is the variation in temp okay or should I go buy the heater?
Sorry to be such a pest!
I'd get a heater, hun. The constant temperature changes will only stress the snails.
BettaFishMommy
07-09-2009, 9:09 PM
exactly how big is the critter keeper? and it's made of plastic, right? i personally wouldn't heat any small tank or bowl under the 5 gallon size, due to the smaller water volume and the chance for it heating too quickly.
have you thought of getting a 5 or 10 gallon tank for the snails? that would give you room to put in a small filter and a heater and would be a better setup, IMO.
jamiya0727
07-09-2009, 11:56 PM
I just don't have room for a larger tank. Our "main" tank is only 6 gallons, for pete's sake!
BettaFishMommy
07-10-2009, 12:00 AM
then i would suggest putting the snail tank in the warmest room in your house, but make sure it stays out of direct sunlight, if you want to shut the lamp off at night. do you have any sort of filter on the critter keeper? IMO, that is an essential part of raising snails, as they do create a fair bit of waste, even when small. without filtration you would be doing a lot of water changes on that container!
you could leave the light on over the container 24/7 to maintain a constant temperature, i don't think it would hurt the snails any.
jamiya0727
07-10-2009, 12:36 AM
Yes, I have a filter going in there. It's not the best filter, but it's a filter. I don't mind doing water changes - it takes like 2 minutes. At my husband's suggestion, I am putting the light on a timer - on 2 hours, off 2 hours - and hopefully that will keep the temp constant. I will watch and adjust.
jamiya0727
07-11-2009, 10:59 AM
I bought a small heater at Wal-Mart so now that runs all the time and the light is on 12 hours and then off 12 hours. The tank seems to be holding right at 74 degrees, and the little dudes are zooming all over the place. They seem happy.
Lupin
07-11-2009, 11:14 AM
I bought a small heater at Wal-Mart so now that runs all the time and the light is on 12 hours and then off 12 hours. The tank seems to be holding right at 74 degrees, and the little dudes are zooming all over the place. They seem happy.
That's good news!:clap: