First Mystery Snail Clutch

Thank you! That was all very reassuring. I use cuttlebone in the tank but I think she's eaten most of what's in there at the moment. I actually never saw her eat cuttle bone up until a few days ago. The male had a similar chip/crack when I first got him (I didn't notice at the store) and he's totally fine now. Grown to the size of a golf ball too. I just hope my lady snail's not in pain right now

I assure you your soon to be mommy snail is going to be just fine, chips or scuffs are to be expected as they can be a bit rough during mating, the chipped areas will grow out. Slight chipping at the end of the shell is not painful as the shell is dead, as long as the soft tissue and organs aren’t exposed this will not effect her life at all.

 

Bettas can’t hurt the hatchlings they have hard enough shells. It needs to be moist and humid where the clutch is so if you put the lid on tighter/ with less open spots that will be better for the clutch. Also spray it with tank water 2x a day. The first week/ week and a half don’t feed them they won’t eat. Then they can eat tropical fish food until they’re about pea sized and then they need to be eating sinking wafers made primarily of meat. Once they’re about quarter sized it’s fine to start doing algae wafers / veggies 2 times a week. If you want to feed veggies to the other snails just put both the veggies and the meat so the little ones can have the option. Check out my care guide I talk about adding calcium to the tank it really helps with the shells. Cuttlebone is not going to do it.

 

Bettas can’t hurt the hatchlings they have hard enough shells. It needs to be moist and humid where the clutch is so if you put the lid on tighter/ with less open spots that will be better for the clutch. Also spray it with tank water 2x a day. The first week/ week and a half don’t feed them they won’t eat. Then they can eat tropical fish food until they’re about pea sized and then they need to be eating sinking wafers made primarily of meat. Once they’re about quarter sized it’s fine to start doing algae wafers / veggies 2 times a week. If you want to feed veggies to the other snails just put both the veggies and the meat so the little ones can have the option. Check out my care guide I talk about adding calcium to the tank it really helps with the shells. Cuttlebone is not going to do it.

Thanks so much for all the info!! I will definitely refer back to it once they hatch They're in a pretty good spot humidity-wise, right above and between the sponge filter and heater. I also upped the temp a little bit, so there's lots of codensation on the tank walls and lid. I was actually worried there was too much moisture on and around the clutch - I don't want it to mold/drown. Havent been spraying it but it doesn't look dry or anything atm

 

One thing I did when raising mystery snails - I always took the clutch down, put a net breeder in the tank ( the mesh kind ) and sat the clutch floating on a piece of styrofoam ( you can cut up a cup from starbucks, etc and use the pieces ) inside the breeder. I would mist them twice a day with the tank water and 10-12 days later, when they hatched, they would fall in to the breeder and out of the mouths of fish in the tank ( they ALL think that the snails are food, trust me! )
I would feed the snails in the breeder until they were about 2-3 months old and then released in the tank. If you do this, make sure the breeder has at least 1 inch of space ( and not completely under water ) so the snails cannot escape out the sides.

 

Your setup and their location sounds really good so I wouldn’t bother with a hatchery right now. If she lays more in a dryer place in the tank then I would try a hatchery later.

If vacuuming the bottom of the tank is important to you or you have fish big enough to eat them (bettas and tetras can’t) then when the clutch turns grey and mushy take it off and gently free the babies into a container.

If you don’t care about vacuuming and don’t have fish I would let them fall into the tank.