Accidental Mystery Snail Babies

[Care]

We got two mystery snails about 6 weeks ago and a few weeks ago noticed them mating. Just last week, we noticed our first egg clutch. We’re new aquarists so didn’t feel equipped to try to care for snail babies, so we removed and disposed of that egg clutch. A few days later, we found another egg clutch. When I went to remove it, I found a third hidden clutch that looked like a few snails had already hatched!! I removed and disposed of what was left of that clutch. That was yesterday, today I found 5 of the teeniest baby snails crawling around the aquarium. 
 

While I did NOT want to try to hatch and care for a whole clutch of eggs, now that I see these fives little babies, I’m curious if there’s any chance they might survive just roaming around the aquarium? (I made a couple attempts to scoop them into a DIY breeder box, but they are just so small I haven’t figured out a safe way to scoop them up). We have a 20 gallon tank and right now we don’t have any other fish or anything in the tank-just mom, dad, and five baby snails.

I’m prepared for them all to die, but thought it was worth asking you all what you would do in my shoes. Appreciate any advice y’all have!

[Tony s]

Mine were just fine wandering around the tank. They’ll need some source of food. Either algae wafers or algae.  We raised 75 with minimal effort 

[Cinnebuns]

Yes they will survive. I have actually had better luck raising mystery snabies in a seasoned tank than in a breeder box. They tend to have more access to food this way. There typically is biofilm, algae and micro organisms all over a tank. If you are at all concerned, you can add flake food, fry food or bacter ae to help but they shouldn't need much at all. 

Btw, the ones in the pics are magenta. I see one of the parents are magenta as well so not surprising I guess. 

Edited April 2 by Cinnebuns

[Billipo]

SNAIL LIVES MATTER!

Good luck keeping those buggers alive. Mine just laid eggs on Sunday. I'm hoping for a high survival rate. 🤞