Mystery snail eggs & inverts journal

[Guppysnail]

Take her out and remove them. I can’t see to try and identify them. Put them in a shallow white dish of water for photos and on a paper towel. Even if you don’t photo them I would still remove them until you ID them. Could be nothing could be something 🤷🏼‍♀️

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

As it turns out, York was pranked by Hampshire*. 😂 She laid eggs on York throughout the day.  York usually sleeps on the sand, but today she slept on the glass, and that’s prime egg-laying territory for Hampshire. Hampshire “decorates” regularly. 
 

See the shenanigans that go on while I’m at work?!

Here’s a photo of Hampshire eating a zucchini. She usually ignores any food I put in the tank, but seems she likes this one.

*nerite

Update: these were limpets, not nerite eggs. Limpets are beneficial organisms.

Edited June 12, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea
Added pic

[Guppysnail]

ORD 🤣. My goodness. She has been bedazzled 🤣

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

The eggs look a little more plump today? Yesterday they felt firm, now they feel like they spring back when touched if that makes sense.

Also here is York enjoying some Snello. 

 

[eatyourpeas]

@Chick-In-Of-TheSea, you and @Guppysnail make me want to have Mystery snails again! But they are such escape artists! 🐌

[Guppysnail]

On 6/3/2022 at 10:34 PM, eatyourpeas said:

@Chick-In-Of-TheSea, you and @Guppysnail make me want to have Mystery snails again! But they are such escape artists! 🐌

But definitely the cutest escape artists 🤣

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Clutch 4 (size 1” x .75”) was laid this morning. I think I need to get up 30 minutes earlier because York is always next to the clutch when I first look at the tank in the morning. It would be fascinating to watch the process. This clutch has been frozen. 🥺  I gave York a snack, though.

Also I found that an awesome snail egg removal tool is the test kit color card. I didn’t notice any damage when using that.

Edited June 6, 2022 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Guppysnail]

On 6/5/2022 at 6:45 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

would be fascinating to watch the process

It’s so cool. The first time I seen it I was shocked. Their foot seem to swell up and the eggs slide down the outside of the swollen section. They kind of zone out in a trance almost. 

 

On 6/5/2022 at 6:45 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

snail egg removal tool is the test kit color card

This is an awesome idea. I have a few of the coop color cards out of the bottles left over. 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 6/6/2022 at 10:21 AM, Guppysnail said:

This is an awesome idea.

I saw someone do it in a video!  I think it works so well because it is thin & flexible.

On 6/6/2022 at 10:21 AM, Guppysnail said:

It’s so cool. The first time I seen it I was shocked. Their foot seem to swell up and the eggs slide down the outside of the swollen section. They kind of zone out in a trance almost. 

I am excited!  I did get up earlier this morning, but today was not a clutch day, and York was cruisin' around underwater, tidying up the glass.

Edited June 6, 2022 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Darker spots observed in clutch 1 today. Can you see them?

[Torrey]

On 6/3/2022 at 8:34 PM, eatyourpeas said:

@Chick-In-Of-TheSea, you and @Guppysnail make me want to have Mystery snails again! But they are such escape artists! 🐌

You just named The Reluctant Nerm's™ childhood trauma. Abuelita had one of the illegal pomme variety that get big... like apple, or kid's fist sized big. Abuelita would reward it for coming up to say hello, by feeding it hot dog.... So on more than one occasion a very young person would walk by the tank and have a Lovecraftian experience....

We are now 8 years into our relationship, and one year of a tank in [formerly Patient Spouse™, upgraded to Reluctant Nerm™ this weekend] their room... and as long as I don't get goldfish (especially not orandas) or mystery snails (especially not giant gold or apple colored ones), my marriage [and tanks] are safe.

Once I heard the full story of the snail feeding patterns and all the times the snail reached out and touched someone, I was much more empathetic. Of course, Houdini (zebra nerite) went on walk-a-bout first night here.... earning Houdini his name as well as his place in spouse's T4' tank: it has a locking lid😆

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

6/7- omg! Snails hatching?

I woke up and clutch 1 looked like this. I don’t know which of these eggs I damaged when removing from the tank glass but there are MORE open. For sure. I don’t see any snails in incubator? I know the ones on the bottom were damaged from using a razor to get it off the glass (yeah..rookie mistake) and a few on the side. But now some on the top are opening.

Unfortunately I have to go to work so I floated the clutch in the breeder box and loaded the breeder box with food.

Should I crumble this? 
@Guppysnail

Edited June 7, 2022 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Guppysnail]

I don’t crumble them I spritz with a fine mist. Not sure that helps but it makes me feel like I’m helping. I traumatized myself with the first one I tried to assist by crumbling so I avoid doing it.  If you have steady hand with a very light touch (I do not) you could try.  I’m hesitant to advise since I don’t do it. I have used my finger nail to assist a few last ones I feared could not get out. 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

I had to go to work. Arg!!!! Stupid adulting getting in the way of all the fun stuff.

But I modified the foam setup because I couldn’t get the foam to stay wet. I put a piece of power towel on top but left the edge in the water so it keeps wicking tank water. Checked the clutch one more time and it looks “active”.

They’ve got food if they want to come out. At least I only work a half day today.

Edited June 7, 2022 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

I’m a bit distraught that I saw some open eggs but no snails. I feel like I missed something? Are they really that small that maybe I wouldn’t see them in the incubator?

[Guppysnail]

On 6/7/2022 at 8:21 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Are they really that small that maybe I wouldn’t see them in the incubator?

Did you check every inch of the paper towel and styrofoam.  The empty ones happen often. The shell casing by nature is designed to deteriorate and be unstable by the time the babies need out. If no viable babies in the egg it deteriorates quicker. 

 

On 6/7/2022 at 8:11 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Stupid adulting getting in the way of all the fun stuff.

I feel this daily. I have about 10 shirts with some variation of how I hate adulting. 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

I tried to. There was a questionable gold-brown spec on the paper towel, so I dunked it in the breeder box and it dislodged and fell to bottom of breeder box. I don't think it was a snail though, I think it was part of the clutch.

[Guppysnail]

They are visible. Just slightly smaller than the actual egg sac

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 6/7/2022 at 8:30 AM, Guppysnail said:

The empty ones happen often. The shell casing by nature is designed to deteriorate

Also on some videos I watched the clutches that were ready to go were gray.  But mine is not gray; it's still gold. Although I don't know if it is because they will be gold snails since York is gold.

[Guppysnail]

If it’s not grey in spots  it’s not quite ready.  The gray has nothing to do with shell color. It is the egg casing beginning to break down to release the snails. It can sometimes take 14 days is the longest wait for me to have snails still hatching. I’ve read some take longer at lower temps but I have never hatched at lower. 

Ok I just took a real close look (best I could with bad eyes) at your clutch video. I don’t think it’s quite ready. The gray almost looks like they are beginning to mold or fungus when they are ready.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 6/7/2022 at 9:09 AM, Guppysnail said:

Ok I just took a real close look (best I could with bad eyes) at your clutch video. I don’t think it’s quite ready. The gray almost looks like they are beginning to mold or fungus when they are ready.

OK. We are at 11 days now for this clutch.  Will just monitor and if nothing new happened, remove the food when I get home. I may just keep the clutch in the breeder box since it's all set up now.

Oh I should also mention that inside some of the open eggs it was dry, and inside others it was slimy looking.

Edited June 7, 2022 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Guppysnail]

My eyes are not good enough to see that so I don’t know what it means. 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Yeah, the video doesn't really show that, but it is something I observed.

[Guppysnail]

Great observation! I never noticed one way or the other with mine. 

[sweetpoison]

On 5/31/2022 at 7:32 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Also here is a pic of York carrying her carrot. 🙂 I told you she’s a character!

This is an amazing capture!  I take pictures a lot with my camera and this is incredible♥️👏 Now will York eat that entire carrot?

Will she go to the top with it or just walk around and nibble?

question for you since you’re the expert😐

if I get one mystery snail am I going to be inundated with 1 million little babies everywhere?  I blessed once in my 55 gallon with a KAZILLION Baby snails. It was awful.