Apple snails eggs...what to do next?

Alexandrian

Alexandrian

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May 15, 2009
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Alexandria-Egypt
OK.... I am very exited
I was cleaning my American cichlids tank today where my wife put a couple of Apple snails there to keep them safe from the Lochs in my other tanks, Most of time i forget about them, But today while i was cleaning the tank i found a wonderful surprise my snails had eggs, Two clutches of pink eggs sticking against the glass in the back of the tank, By all means i am planing to keep them for a while and for sure i want the eggs to hatch, What shall i do? shall i move them? to a small tank?
I wonder if it will work if i put the clutches on a peace of foam floating on water on a smaller tank till they hatch?
Any advice please?
 
Alexandrian, congrats!

First of all, please make sure the snail who laid the eggs has been copulated by mals prior to laying her eggs otherwise the egg clutches will certainly be infertile. Infertile eggs smell too pungent. The first clutch of my diffusas was quite pungent that I almost vomited from it. I gave it 3-4 weeks before it could have possibly hatched but I was baffled why the next clutches have already hatched while the first remained the same so I decided to crush the whole clutch with not a single egg successfully hatched at all.

I assume these are canas considering the bright pink eggs, right? Canas are just too prolific. Please be sure you plan on accommodating dozens of snails. I regret ever attempting hundreds because by that time, I realized the canas don't mix well with other snails I keep especially as juvenile canas are very aggressive to the point they harass other snails constantly by copulating and outcompeting them for food. The adults on the other hand are quite passive and are less problematic.

If you do plan to hatch them, leave them alone where they are assuming the area is quite humid. If not, scrape them off after twenty four hours prior to them being laid using a razor blade or credit card and place them in a container to seal the humidity. Leave a few holes for air exchange. There are plenty of methods written in one of the links sealed in a sticky thread of this section.

Hope this helps!
 
--- I removed my comments it could turn into a thread jack and that isn't my intention ;) ---
 
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Congrats on the clutch. The sticky at the top of this forum is full of hatching strategies, but I can tell you from first hand expierence that removing the clutches and floating them on a piece of foam works just fine. I had a small plastic critter keeper, used to house crickets for my frog. I filled it half way with established tank water, cut a small piece of styrofoam to fit inside, set two clutches of eggs on it and placed it on top of the light fixture where it stays nice and warm. Once the eggs started looking milky and brittle I barely scraped a fingernail over the outside edge and the outer shell came off. I did this to all the eggs that looked ready to go and left them set. A few hours later the babies came crawling out and I ended up washing them gently down into the water. This was last night mind you so they are all very very small. Today the second clutch hatched out as well. This is my first attempt but I know we have, I'd say, an 80% survival rate at this point. I've done a small water change in that tank, placed a single flake of fish food in there, and a very small piece of snail jello. Don't know how it will go from here, but as to your question of incubating, I wouldn't place them in a tank with fish if you want to keep them. They are smaller than the diameter of the lead of a pencil when they first hatch out. Fish food sized, you could say.
 
Lupin said:
Alexandrian, congrats!

First of all, please make sure the snail who laid the eggs has been copulated by mals prior to laying her eggs otherwise the egg clutches will certainly be infertile. Infertile eggs smell too pungent. The first clutch of my diffusas was quite pungent that I almost vomited from it. I gave it 3-4 weeks before it could have possibly hatched but I was baffled why the next clutches have already hatched while the first remained the same so I decided to crush the whole clutch with not a single egg successfully hatched at all.

I assume these are canas considering the bright pink eggs, right? Canas are just too prolific. Please be sure you plan on accommodating dozens of snails. I regret ever attempting hundreds because by that time, I realized the canas don't mix well with other snails I keep especially as juvenile canas are very aggressive to the point they harass other snails constantly by copulating and outcompeting them for food. The adults on the other hand are quite passive and are less problematic.

If you do plan to hatch them, leave them alone where they are assuming the area is quite humid. If not, scrape them off after twenty four hours prior to them being laid using a razor blade or credit card and place them in a container to seal the humidity. Leave a few holes for air exchange. There are plenty of methods written in one of the links sealed in a sticky thread of this section.

Hope this helps!
Click to expand...

Mostly they are a male and a female, they were with another pair till a month ago, This morning i found another clutch of eggs on the edge of the tank hood, I wonder how many more shall they give me
eggs still smell ok so i think it is mostly alive

The lfs i am dealing with will be more than happy to trade them for some fish and what ever will left will go to my Loaches dinner
Thanks for your advice Lupin, You were really helpful as always :thm:
I'll post some photos tomorrow
 
katana1200 said:
Congrats on the clutch. The sticky at the top of this forum is full of hatching strategies, but I can tell you from first hand expierence that removing the clutches and floating them on a piece of foam works just fine. I had a small plastic critter keeper, used to house crickets for my frog. I filled it half way with established tank water, cut a small piece of styrofoam to fit inside, set two clutches of eggs on it and placed it on top of the light fixture where it stays nice and warm. Once the eggs started looking milky and brittle I barely scraped a fingernail over the outside edge and the outer shell came off. I did this to all the eggs that looked ready to go and left them set. A few hours later the babies came crawling out and I ended up washing them gently down into the water. This was last night mind you so they are all very very small. Today the second clutch hatched out as well. This is my first attempt but I know we have, I'd say, an 80% survival rate at this point. I've done a small water change in that tank, placed a single flake of fish food in there, and a very small piece of snail jello. Don't know how it will go from here, but as to your question of incubating, I wouldn't place them in a tank with fish if you want to keep them. They are smaller than the diameter of the lead of a pencil when they first hatch out. Fish food sized, you could say.
Click to expand...
Thanks katana1200
I'll go for it and move them to a small small plastic can and wait to see what will happened
I need some good reading about those snails specially their growing rate
Thanks for your advice
 
Well, I have moved my survivors to a 2.5 gal. eclipse mini-bow tank. I think we may be down to about a 50% survival rate right now. I'm sure my inexperience isn't helping. I stretched a piece of the wife's old nylons over the filter intake to keep anyone from finding their way in. After only 3 days the babies are noticeably bigger. In good light you can really make out the shell details and the spider web - thin antena. I don't notice them actually eating anything that I have put into the tank but all seems well. Hope your clutch comes along nicely. As far as how many you can expect.....well, I have 4 females and a male, and as of this moment I've had 2 hatch, 2 are in the incubator, and 7 more are in the tank, including one new one this morning lol. This has been in the last 3 weeks. The one's in the tank are going to be left to hatch without incubation. I'd like to see the survival rate in the community tank. I've placed a few of the obvious non-survivors in the tank and they are quickly picked off by the Zebra danios and Harlequin rasboras. I feel I will have no problem keeping the population in check. I hope not to hijack your thread, but only to give a bit of insight into the rookie snail breeder expierience. If you'd like more responces along this line let me know. I'll keep you updated on how its going.

-Jeff
 
By all means please do
I have no experience with snails at all, I use to keep the common terrestrial ones when i was about 13 years old but never the aquatic snails, I just had them because my wife loved how they look, In fact i did't help them by anyway the water level in the tank is as high as it can be and i never offer them special food they had to take what ever i am feeding my American cichlids
But i guess they are much tuffer than they look like
 
what I DO . I take a small container *( food contanier) with lid, I cut small holes all in the lid , I then put tank water in the bottom a little less then halfway , I float a pc of stryo foam, AND I put wooden skewer sticks on top the other way , I lay my clutches carefully on top of the sticks , I then place this contanier on top of my light over my 55 , it gets hot , but not too hot :) ~~ they usually hatch fast this way , and when I see atleast 20 babies, I just throw them in with thier parents and other mystery snails in a sponge filtered tank . I then change out the old water, and put in some freash . I leave my clutches alone, I dont take my finger nail or any device to get them out, I am scared I would squish them, they are the size of a pin head when they come out !!! So I think its best to let them break out on thier own, now I will take the old clutch AFTER all babies have stoped appearing every am, and put it in a coffee cup and swirl it around, then I can find any babies stuck in, and I leave them in teh coffee cup till they start sticking to the sides, or moving around, then I know' they are alive and can be placed in grow out tank . YOu may want to make a tank with a sponge filter, it could even be a small container ( rubbermaid etc. ) for awile, (big enough for a small sponge filter . ) just hook a air pump & small heater and here is a make shift tank :) they can grow out in , and you can always use this tank later, for more snails, OR as a hospital tank, Q tank / whatever you will need it for . HTH ~~ good luck with your mysterys I LOVE mine !!! BTW ~~ what colors do you have in the big tank ? that would help you see what babies you will have .

I found my sterlite contanier at walmart on sale this week *( back to school sale) fro 3.00 !!!~~ I think it says 58 Q , high enough sides, that I think It would hold about 6 gallons of water, IDK yet thow, have not filled it yet :) ~~ Mine will be for baby marmokrebs to grow out in, also as a hospital tank or Q tank when needed, I am going back to get the shallower one's ( i need 2 atleast ) so my marmokreb babies will have lots of surface' area not to get in each others hidey spot' ..LOL ~~ sorry more info then needed. I tend to alwasy type TMI ~~ well good lucki and let us know how it goes !! ~~ are your white foot or black foots ?? I used to only have white, now that i have blacks WOW ~~ they are truly cool snails ~~!!!!
 
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Thanks addicted2fish for the detailed information
I put them in a plastic food container as you mentioned
It is around 25 C here so i think it is worm enough for them
If they will be that small i am a little worried that i won't notice them when they hatch, But i'll do my best
Thanks
 
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