ocelot1120

I have a black Mystery Snail (Pomacea Bridgesii). I bought it 3 or more weeks ago. i only have the one snail. several days ago i noticed what i think is eggs all over the glass. they are tiny clear bubble looking things with a small white "nucleus" in the center. the white part appears to be moving very slowly. this site says snails would usually lay their eggs above the water line, but this isnt the case here. the only fish in the tank are 6 tiger barbs and 1 common pleco so i dont think the eggs belong to any of them because tiger barbs supposedly lay eggs on leafy plants. if they are eggs, they must belong to the snail. so, could a snail be pregnant for 3 to 5 weeks before laying eggs? how long before these possible eggs hatch?

Austin {Aquarist}

what you described is exackly what snail eggs look like I am pretty sure you have snail eggs. As for the questions about when they hatch, I really dont know because I just have pond snails and I havent cared enough about them to observe when the baby snails hatch.

rainman

Are the eggs above or below the water line?

ocelot1120

the eggs are below the water line which is the biggest reason why i was wondering since this site says they would be above the water line.

griffin

is it possible that they are snail eggs that just slid down below the water line? when i had brigs, that would sometimes happen. if you want lots of little ones, try taking it above water and hatching that way? if you don't want lots of little ones, push it below the water, and the snail might eat the eggs (good nutrient source) or you can just trash the eggs too.

ocelot1120

they are scattered pretty evenly all around the sides from top to bottom. i suppose they could have slid down but i would think they would all be at the bottom by now if they had already slid this far. i noticed them nearly a week ago and haven't noticed a decrease in number so far.

Alessa

do they look like a clutch or like a bunch of eggs together? kinda like grapes?

they do sound like snail eggs to me

clinton1621

Snails can and do lay their eggs underwater, they really love to lay them on plant leaves or on the glass... they would not lay them above the water line or else the jelly like egg sac would dry out.

Alessa

Pomacea brigesii, have to lay their eggs above the water line, otherwise the embryos will drown. http://www.applesnail.net/

clinton1621

They are amphibious... they cant drown, and if you read the article it actually says "some species of apple snails" lay them above the water level to keep predators from eating the egg sacs.

Alessa

yes, but specificallly Pomacea bridgesii, the one we are talking about, need to lay them above the water line.
I know they are amphibious, as I have 2. in an embryonic stage they will drown.

I cannot attach the URL since it will just say applesnail.net, but it is located in the "care" section, it says as follows:

"Species that lay eggs above the waterline (genera: Pomacea, Asolene (Pomella) and Pila): After the eggs are deposited, they are soft and have a rather milky, pink colour. After a few hours, they harden and get their definitive colour (from pale pink to raspberry-red or even greenish depending of the species). It might happen that the eggs at the surface dry out, on which they get a lighter colour. ...
It's important to keep the eggs in a moist, but not wet environment. Never keep these eggs under water (this will drown the embryos)! Keep the temperature between 18 and 28°C (65-82°F). The higher the temperature, the faster the snails will hatch. "

clinton1621

Hmm... I did not know that, but it would stand to reason that since his eggsacs are clear jelly blobs with white spots in them that they are in fact aquatic... as mentioned on the website you are referring to. So does that mean he doesnt have Pomacea bridgesii?

Alessa

yes, or that they fell below the water line on an early stage when they were not yet hardened, or they are something else.

ocelot1120

i am pretty sure its a bridgesii. the shoulder (of the shell) has a very distinct 90 degree angle, which is what most sites use to distinguish between species. the eggs are not bunched together at all. they are really just scattered throughout the tank. the whole roof of the tank is made of glass so i figured if it was gonna lay them above the waterline it would have put them there.

rainman

One of the only species of Applesnails that lay it's eggs below the water line is the Columbian Ramshorn (Marisa cornuarietis). And you dont have this snail so... could it be pond snail eggs?

ocelot1120

i dont know that they would be pond snail eggs unless the bridgesii is a pond snail.

Alessa

Yes, if they are scattered and below the water line, they are not the snail's eggs, counting that she is a P.Bridgesii. Maybe you have a hidden pond snail somewhere?

ocelot1120

theres no way i have a pond snail in there that i never bought and have never seen, is there? i know im not crazy. the bridgesii is the first snail i ever had.

clinton1621

Pond snails are very small, and they could be brought in initially as eggs on live plants... all it takes is one tiny pond snail to populate the entire tank. You also may not notice them at all or very often, they like to hide in the gravel or underneath rocks and other dark areas during the day.

pepetj

Hi you all! sorry I missed this thread before:

I have Pomacea bridgesii (keeping two adult males now) with the 90degrees in the shell too, they are Apple Snails, sometimes misidentified and sold as Mistery Snails, which by the way are viviparum (not egg-layers) and are "both sexes" at once, unlike Apple Snails who have distinct sexes. The easiest ways of telling one from the other is the long appendix Apple Snails use to breathe -like a snorkel; other difference in their behavior, important in planted tanks: Mistery Snails will eat most plants -well maybe not Anubias- but Apple Snails only a few -Giant Baby tears in my limited experience. They love veggies (cucumber, zuccini, letuce, and of course algae waffers)

I have noticed that sometime after they hatch, or even shortly after placing eggs, Adults disappear from the tank, I have found two of them dead (one inside, one outside the tank); I don't know if their life cycle ends -at least the variety I keep, that come from the wild (if native or introduced I don't know) seem to do so. Once the baby snails hatch, they are all transparent, tiny, and resemble eggs laid underwater -they go underwater right away, but if you look carefully you can distinct they are actually more than eggs!.

Mine has placed their clustered eggs in the interior wall of the HOB filters, next to the intake tube and one time outside the tank, above the canopy also close to the HOB; somehow eggs remain moist although they may look like drying out. I hatched countless of them from the Angelfish tank; I'm using them as giveaway to others fishkeepers with planted tanks, and also feeding the big guys (Oscars and Severums). They grow rapidly, in about 4-6 weeks, mine reach 1/4" or maybe more. They don't hatch all at once, it takes about a week for all to come out.

There's controversial information on the net about Mistery Snails = Apple Snails, however the good data on applesnail.net seemed well presented/informed to me, that's mostly my source.

I have limited experience with the Apple Snail; I placed two males in the Rainbowfish tank since I don't want them hatching there. They are scape artist and can easily get hurt or even die in the hard fall from the tank to the floor. Their poo is visible, but I doubt they have a heavy bio-load at all, they do their part in keeping the tank clean, from plants, to substrate to indoor glass walls. I just love this fellows. They are sold at 0.50 to 0.80USD locally.

Hope this helps

Pepe
Santo Domingo

rainman

[quote=pepetj;428904]Hi you all! sorry I missed this thread before:

I have Pomacea bridgesii (keeping two adult males now) with the 90degrees in the shell too, they are Apple Snails, sometimes misidentified and sold as Mistery Snails, which by the way are viviparum (not egg-layers) and are "both sexes" at once, unlike Apple Snails who have distinct sexes. The easiest ways of telling one from the other is the long appendix Apple Snails use to breathe -like a snorkel; other difference in their behavior, important in planted tanks: Mistery Snails will eat most plants -well maybe not Anubias- but Apple Snails only a few -Giant Baby tears in my limited experience. They love veggies (cucumber, zuccini, letuce, and of course algae waffers)QUOTE]

Hm... I am confused about this post.

pepetj

I PM you about it, sorry I wrote this post in a rush.

This is what I intend to say:
1) Apple Snails ARE NOT the same as Mistery Snails.
2) Pomacea bridgesii ARE Apple Snails, which lay eggs above the water level in a cocoon like nest; once hatched they still look like eggs, but if you look closer, you will see this transparent/translucent mini-tiny snails!
3) Mistery Snails are indeed beautiful, and similar in the looks to Apple Snails, but the Mistery Snails are viviparum (their fry is born alive, not from eggs, same as livebearer fish as guppies, mollies, platies, swordtails...) and have this ability of being male/female at the same time (I need help from the biologist here!), unlike Apple Snails that are one or the other (as most developed invertebrates).
4) Mistery Snails feed on most aquatic plants -as well as food waste and algae- meaning they will make keeping a planted tank a tough task -unless you keep certain plants as Anubias- unlike Apple Snails, that are quite friendly towards most plants -my exception was that mine devoured Giant Baby Tears.
5) most of the info I got from applesnail.net; otherwise it's from my actual experience with locally collected (from the wild) Pomacea Bridgesii: 7 specimens, one of them quite old (I keep his shell). I happen to breed this guys and have a tank with 200+ baby snails.

Pepe
Santo Domingo

griffin

http://www.applesnail.net/content/species_genera.htm that's a link to different kinds of apple snails.

you might want to try and id your snail based on that if you know that it's an apple snail?

btw, from my experience with them, brigs do not eat plants unless they are dead already.

ocelot1120

ok. i am positive that i have a bridgesii. according to the applesnail website it has absolutely every characteristic. i am always observing my tanks several times a day. if there is a pond snail or whatever else in the tank it must be microscopic. theres nothing in my tanks that im not aware of. the egg things are either tiger barb eggs or black mystery snail (bridgesii) eggs (only because they showed up shortly after buying the snail. or if the rumors about certain snails having no particular sex are correct). these are eggs (no doubt about it) but are they snail eggs and if so when will they hatch? could they already be very tiny baby snails with transparent shells? what do they even look like during their "infancy" stage?

Alessa

if they are not in a clutch, they arent bridgesii eggs, and even if they were, and somehow fell underwater, they will not hatch because like i posted before, eggs drown if they are covered by water.

is there any way to get a picture?

rainman

You could always remove some and quarantine them, to see what they are: snail eggs, barb eggs, or something else.

griffin

baby brigs look like adult brigs, just much much smaller. sounds like you got a mystery on your hands :P

Fishies-for-me

Did anything hatch?? I woulda bet that you had cory cats as the eggs sounded like theirs ..but I checked your info and no cories....lol...now I am curious.

ocelot1120

nothing hatched yet. still a mystery. but unfortunately im having some water quality problems at the moment so whatever it is will probably die. i think i need a bigger filter in that tank or something. i had a major problem with green cloudy water one day so ive been doing 50% water changes and now it looks like its going through another nitrogen cycle.

agilliard1

maybe its hydra