Babies!

Some time ago, we got a couple of apple snails for our aquarium.  I thought they were hemaphrodites, like other snails, but it turns out we've got a breeding pair.

And breed they do!  Or at least get a lot of practise at it.  Then they ... er... she... lays eggs.  Lots of them.  In clusters.  Large clusters.

As of this writing, we'd found ourselves with 6 clusters of eggs.  They're laid outside the water, and three of them were laid on the underside of the lid, right under where the light sits, though one of them ended up falling off.  The light isn't directly on the lid.  It used to be until I noticed that any algae build up under it burned, making it rather hard to clean off, so I've got it propped up by a couple of tilted wooden chopsticks, keeping the bulb slightly more than an inch off the glass.

I read that the eggs can take 2-4 weeks to hatch, but there was no sign of any babies.  The oldest of the clusters looks the same now as it has since we discovered it, except that there's algae growing on it now.

That all changed recently.

I think what made the difference is that I moved where the light was resting on the chopsticks, which brought it slightly closer to the glass then it was before.  The egg cluster positioned closest under it, which would could only be seen clearly where it was stuck to the glass, appeared to dry out.  I figured it got baked.  As far as we knew, all but the two most recent clusters of eggs were dead, and this was either the 3rd or 4th cluster laid (I can't remember whether it or the one that fell off was older).

I happened to glance through the side of the tank above the water line the other night and that cluster looked rather strange.  Twisting and turning around to get a better look, I realized that I was looking at empty egg cases.  So I immediately started searching the tank.

Sure enough, I found a single baby snail crawling along in the gravel.  It was a fair bit larger than the eggs, so it might have been a day or two old.  I figure, after dropping from the egg cases, any surviving snails kept hidden in the gravel until they were larger.  I was eventually able to spot the shell of another one later on, but that was it.

The rest of the family were already in bed, so I didn't tell the girls about it until this morning.  When we took a look again, we found 5 tiny little snails crawling around.  They seem to like the fake skull we've got in the tank. ;-)  Eventually, we found a couple more.

I went to remove the dried up egg cluster from the underside of the lid, only to have it fall onto the water, where the bits and pieces are still floating.  I think that, in the process, I freed up more babies!  Whether they're alive or not, I can't tell.  They're so tiny, they're being tossed around by the bubbles from the air stone, sometimes getting hung up in the bubbles on the surface. As for the others, we haven't seen all seven for a while.  I imagine the survival rate is pretty low, and for all I know, the pleco or the danios will eat them.  They're small enough to get sucked into the filter, too.

Curious, I rearranged the light on the lid so that it was positioned more directly over the other cluster of eggs on the underside of the lid.  Some time later, looking through the side of the tank above the water line again, I could see two snails hatching!  Well, perhaps "see" is a bit generous.  I'm not about to tip the lid up enough to look closely, but I could see two snails moving around.  They're not there anymore, so I assume they've dropped into the water.  I wonder if the warmth of the light will encourage any more hatchlings?

Throughout the day, we've been going back to the tank, looking for the babies.  They're so tiny, they're mostly transparent.  Of the ones that are slightly larger, you can see their tentacles, looking like fine threads, and the tiny black dots of their eyes.

Should any survive and grow larger, I already have someone who'd like a couple for their own tank.  After this, though, if there are any more egg clusters laid, I think we'll be removing them and flushing them.  Our tank is already maxed out, and wouldn't be able to support more than two adult snails.

Meanwhile...

we have itty, bitty snail babies!  They are so cool!

LOL