Not really trying to breed mystery snails . . .

[Epiphanaea]

Thought I had two girls.  Nope.  They have been, um, *busy* the past day.  So I assume eggs will be forthcoming.

I really didn’t want to have to get rid of eggs, I feel weird about getting rid of critters in embryonic form that I feel emotional attachment to as adults, bleh.  But I cannot possibly have fractal-graph numbers of mystery snails, so I am trying to remind myself that they are a species where, in nature, only a very tiny percentage of the offspring would survive.

So question is - can I keep just one or two eggs?  I realize there’s no guarantee I’d pick fertile eggs, but this wasn’t really the plan anyway, so if I end up with zero babies that’s okay.  I’m just curious if I can separate an egg or two from the mass and still have the possibility of a healthy hatchling, or if doing that might result in it growing deformed or unhealthy.

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

@Guppysnail might be able to answer this however, I understand how you feel about pulling eggs, but if you consider getting them almost as soon as they're laid they are just "fertilized" kind of like chicken eggs. That's how I look at them, and yes most people cannot afford a full hatch. What I usually do is pull the large sacks and keep the small ones, they do happen. I'm not sure there's an easy way to separate the eggs without damaging them. But maybe our Mystery Snail keepers know a trick.

[Guppysnail]

Unfortunately no to keeping 1-2. You can try cutting the clutch in thirds or fourths though. 
When laid they are soft and held together in a slime goo. Once that goo hardens it sort of fuses and becomes part of the hardened egg casing. Trying to separate one will damage it. That shell needs to retain moisture. Most of that is done through where the eggs touch each other. 
 

I have watched different snail eggs develop under a microscope. It takes roughly 2 days for eggs that hatch in 5-7 days to be more than cells dividing. So mystery snails being 10-20 day hatched please feel safe knowing there are no baby snails yet. 

[Epiphanaea]

Quote

I have watched different snail eggs develop under a microscope. It takes roughly 2 days for eggs that hatch in 5-7 days to be more than cells dividing. So mystery snails being 10-20 day hatched please feel safe knowing there are no baby snails yet. 

Thank you, that is actually very nice to know.  With such a short "gestation" period I was thinking they'd be starting to form within hours - forgot I was dealing with aquatic creatures, who hatch while basically still embryos.