baby snails!

so, a while ago I ordered some really cool snails -now in my son's tank there is a beautiful ramshorn(marissa?) a blue brigs, a spixie, and one pond snail that we have let grow-(he is about 3/4 inch long now!) The rest of the little pond snails we smash and feed to the platys). the other day I was "collecting" the baby pond snails and realized some weren't pond snails but baby ramshorns and brigs! 2 of each! They are so cute- I took a couple of them and put them in my tank-and put the other two back in my son's- but,,,, I guess i am to assume that snails interbreed? last night my son said- hey mom- come look at this!
I find the spixie all over and practically inside the ramshorn- so.,, i think they were mating. I never saw any clutch but obviously something's been happening because I have those pretty babies.
Anyone know what type of snails breed with what?
just curious. The one ramshorn is especially pretty- almost gold in color-It has been fascinating to watch how quickly the baby snails grow, too- it's been a great science lesson for my son-and me!
Anyway, my question is do brigs, spicies, and ramshorns interbreed? How long does it all take-(gestatin) or- was the snail pregnant when I got it(whoever it was) and this won't happen again.
any advice is appreciated!
thanks,
Janet

sorry about all the typos in that last post-
I mean- can brigs, spixies, ramshorn snails all interbreed with each other? and, what is the gestational period for snails?
thanks,
Janet

flaringshutter said:

spixies and marisas can interbreed, but it's unusual and you'd have to have a male of one species and a female of the other. this is the only interspecies pairing that can actually produce offspring - all other interspecies pairing won't work.
and it's not safe to assume that the top snail is a male and the bottom a female - male snails will also mount other males, regardless of species.

also, the only snails that are livebearing are Viviparus species, not marisas or bridgesii. that would be the only species where you could end up with two or three young, and the only species that can be "pregnant". marisas lay a big clutch of clear eggs underwater - 30-50 eggs, and brigs lay much larger clutches above water - hundreds of eggs in each. so i'm not sure that you would end up with only two babies of each species. both the marisa and brig would have to have mated before you purchased them (they don't get 'pregnant' but they can hold sperm for months), laid the eggs, they would have hatched and you would have hundreds of babies, not four.

they're probably small pond snails, which are hermaphroditic and do not need a mate to reproduce. it's hard to ID without a photo, though. perhaps you could post one?

Click to expand...

Yeh- I knew they would lay eggs, I just didn't know how long it would take for them to hatch once the eggs were laid- I was trying to figure out the time table to see if it was something that happened before I bought them or if it had to have happened after-I've had them all for about 6 weeks and the babies appeared in week 5-and are growing like weeds!
I don't have a good working camera right now but I know they aren't pond snails- I get those all the time- though we have kept one and let it grow, the babies have a pretty easily identifiable look- that's why I noticed the babies ramshorns- the bigger they get the more they look like marisas- they are very cute! I wish I could get a picture.

msjinkzd said:

Is the tank planted? its also possible you could have a different (non-apple snail) species of ramshorn that came in with plants. They stay smaller and are hemaphroditic. Its also possible if the tank is planted that you could have not seen the spixi eggs. Also if there are fish in the tank its likely they could have eaten some of the small baby snails.

Click to expand...

this is what I am thinking- that the spixi laid the eggs in the plants so I didn't find them- they are growing like weeds-the babies, I mean-
I wouldn't be surprised at all if my platies, who LOVE to eat baby snails, feasted on them- this would also explain why my platies all looked so fat the day after I "fasted" them. I just figured someone else had fed them-LOL! But that is the day I found the few survivors-hehe--
If I get a camera working I'll post a few pics- the one ramshorn is really pretty with a gold shimmer-
the only other possibility is that perhaps they are the different ramshorn that you mention above- but I haven't purchased any new plants in quite some time---
The only thing my son wishes is that we could figure out which is a boy and which is a girl- I know the applesnail site show pics but it is too hard for us to tell- ds wants to make sure the guys have guy names and the gals have gal names-LOL!
Well anyway, thanks for the info everyone!
happy snail watching!
Janet