Raising Mystery Snails - First Time!

[Katherine]

I will be attempting to hatch mystery snail eggs for the first time! I am beyond excited.

I noticed the first egg clutch this afternoon while doing routine tank maintenance. Then decided I'd better check for more and found the second one hiding under the light. I think the one under the light is slightly smaller than the other so that may be the one I attempt to hatch. I'm leaving them both alone until tomorrow afternoon though, since I'm not sure quite how fresh they are.

Mom, Penny, my ivory snail has been cruising around cleaning the windows today.

Dads, Blue Soul and Goldilocks, blue and gold, respectively, have been chilling. Are mystery snails like cats in that they can have multiple fathers in the same 'litter'? Because both have been attempting it for sure. I guess we'll find out.

Here's the 75g tank the parents are living in. Can I raise the babies in here? They would start out in a breeder box and move them into the main part of the tank when they get bigger. Or should I raise them in my 10g quarantine tank? It should be free before they hatch as long as there are no surprise illnesses.

@Chick-In-Of-TheSea and @Guppysnail I thought you might be interested. And helpful, I hope.

[CKetchum]

Nothing is cuter then baby snails! 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 7/9/2022 at 6:48 PM, Katherine said:

Blue Soul

He is so handsome! ORD! 😍

Happy to follow along and offer support! Your tank is pretty!

[Katherine]

Some things came up Sunday afternoon, so the the incubator got made today instead. My kids and a friend of theirs who was over 'helped' make it. They thought the eggs were so cool and I let them each touch the clutches very gently.

After some great debate by the children and a coin toss we chose to incubate the smaller clutch. You can see in this picture that a few on the side are already changing color. I'm not 100% sure how old this clutch is since it was in a hard to see place. I'm thinking it was laid sometime between last Tuesday and Saturday based on when I last did a good check of the rim. I found it on Saturday after seeing the larger clutch, otherwise I'm not sure I'd have seen it.

They we much easier to get off the glass than I was anticipating. I was ready with @Chick-In-Of-TheSea's trick to use the color chart card from my ACO test strips, but I didn't need it. I barely touched them and they were off the glass in my hand.

And for cuteness, here is Goldilocks, potential father number 2, munching on a snail pellet.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

That’s cool that the kids got involved and were interested. 
 

I changed the wet paper towel in the incubator daily, but some people don’t do that. Not sure if it mattered, as long as the moisture was there.

Goldilocks is a nice looking dude. I like his white foot. I have a thing for gold snails… 

Edited July 12, 2022 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Katherine]

On 7/11/2022 at 10:46 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

That’s cool that the kids got involved and were interested. 

My kids really enjoy the fish tank and the snails especially. They were very excited when I told them we'd be hatching baby snails.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 7/12/2022 at 4:41 AM, Katherine said:

My kids really enjoy the fish tank and the snails especially. They were very excited when I told them we'd be hatching baby snails.

Oh just wait til all the cuteness comes out of the eggs. They’ll love it!  Fun for all ages! 

[Guppysnail]

On 7/9/2022 at 6:48 PM, Katherine said:

have multiple fathers

Yes. The females can store male milt for think 10 months from many males. 
 

 

On 7/11/2022 at 5:14 PM, Katherine said:

incubate the smaller clutch.

Unfortunately the small clutches are often not fertile or only a very few fertile ones in the clutch. 
 

Im very excited to follow along your journey.  I love reading of others snail hatching journeys. It like I get to experience more snail hatches without getting overrun and having to d the water changes 🤣

[Katherine]

On 7/12/2022 at 8:29 AM, Guppysnail said:

Unfortunately the small clutches are often not fertile or only a very few fertile ones in the clutch. 

Fingers crossed it's not completely infertile, but only a few would be ok by me. I don't want to get completely overrun before I get the hang of what we're doing. And if this one does fail we can always try another clutch later. Thank you for the heads up!

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 7/12/2022 at 9:31 AM, Katherine said:

Fingers crossed it's not completely infertile, but only a few would be ok by me. I don't want to get completely overrun before I get the hang of what we're doing. And if this one does fail we can always try another clutch later. Thank you for the heads up!

Every egg hatched in the first, small clutch that my snail laid.  Oddly enough, the success rate on my bigger clutch was not as good.  Good luck!

On 7/12/2022 at 9:29 AM, Guppysnail said:

Yes. The females can store male milt for think 10 months from many males. 

I still think that is incredible.

On 7/12/2022 at 9:29 AM, Guppysnail said:

Im very excited to follow along your journey.  I love reading of others snail hatching journeys. It like I get to experience more snail hatches without getting overrun and having to d the water changes 🤣

Meeee tooooo! ORD!

[Katherine]

I've got 2 more tiny clutches on the back glass. One directly behind a heater cord and the other directly behind an airline. The waterline is a good inch and a half higher than we she laid the others, so I think she's not wanting to lay as long a clutch to keep it higher above the water. I'm strongly considering leaving one of them on the glass to see how it does hatching with no intervention.

[Guppysnail]

If you have a lid they can hatch. My niece accidentally hatched a missed clutch with one of the black plastic hoods on the tank. Worth a try!

[Katherine]

On 7/13/2022 at 6:01 PM, Guppysnail said:

If you have a lid they can hatch. My niece accidentally hatched a missed clutch with one of the black plastic hoods on the tank. Worth a try!

I do have a lid. These clutches are about half the size of the other small one we're incubating, so I figure one of them would still be a manageable number of babies. And I'm not sure how many would make it the whole way left to their own devices anyway. I'm sooo tempted by the experimental factor of it. Especially since I'd be doing both at roughly the same time. I think I'm gonna go ahead and do it.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Do it! Do it! I’ve never hatched one on the glass, so it would be interesting to see what happens!

Edited July 14, 2022 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Katherine]

I've been checking the eggs every afternoon and today it looks like there are a few empty cells, one on top and 2 on the end. But no snails in sight. I quadruple checked the paper towels before changing them. Any idea what's going on there? Am I remembering right that that happened to you as well @Chick-In-Of-TheSea?

There was also another tiny clutch directly behind an airline. I'm removing all but the first tiny clutch, which shows no changes at this point.

[Guppysnail]

The empty ones were not fertile and they do that as the clutch ages. The shell is designed to deteriorate and become fragile so babies can get out. It’s all 😊 good 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Same thing happened to me @Katherine. I believe it is the norm for a clutch.

[Katherine]

On 7/13/2022 at 5:30 PM, Katherine said:

I've got 2 more tiny clutches on the back glass. One directly behind a heater cord and the other directly behind an airline. The waterline is a good inch and a half higher than we she laid the others, so I think she's not wanting to lay as long a clutch to keep it higher above the water. I'm strongly considering leaving one of them on the glass to see how it does hatching with no intervention.

I found this clutch floating in the back corner this morning. So it went into the freezer. They possibly already drowned, but who knows. At this point I'm probably not going to attempt another on the glass hatch for a little while.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 7/19/2022 at 3:41 PM, Katherine said:

I found this clutch floating in the back corner this morning. So it went into the freezer. They possibly already drowned, but who knows. At this point I'm probably not going to attempt another on the glass hatch for a little while.

I have heard that happen to other people with the clutches on the glass. I don’t know why. Maybe just the adhesive isn’t strong enough or the biofilm on the glass plays a factor. 
 

And don’t worry. More clutches to come! 😉

[Katherine]

On 7/19/2022 at 6:41 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

More clutches to come! 😉

Yup. I already see one I need to take off tomorrow night. Still just little ones like the one I was going to try to hatch. She hasn't decided there's not enough room and moved to the lid though.

And they've all popped off with the slightest touch, I think she could have accidentally knocked it off herself.

Edited July 20, 2022 by Katherine

[Katherine]

Here's what the incubated clutch looks like today. 11 days after I found it. 9 days in the incubator.

@Guppysnail Does this look like normal development for that timeline? Or do you think I did end up with a dud clutch? (Also, I hope I haven't been tagging you too much lately!)

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Mine hatched on the 12th day, but it does vary. Some people's clutches take 3-4 weeks.

Just looked back, and it took my 2nd clutch 23 days to hatch.

[Guppysnail]

Still in timeframe. These look possible. Hard to tell from photo but the others I see no darkness inside. Here is one that hatched today. I helped a bit because I did not want them hatching at night in an incubator 

[Katherine]

I'll see if I can get a closer photo tomorrow when I check on them.

[Katherine]

Ok, here are some closer photos. I think we're visibly further along than yesterday. Those bubbly ones look promising, right?