Funny How I Ended Up With Over 100 Mystery Snails...

aquafrogg
  • #1
Yeah, the title pretty much says it all. Be ready for a wild ride.

About a month after Sheldon (my previous Mystery Snail) died, I wanted another mystery snail. So, I went and got Mama Snail from a local pet store. She is a beautiful wild type mystery snail with a dark brown striped shell and a dark body. Let me tell you, she. is. huge. She touches both ends of my palm when she stretches out. She was around sheldon's size (a quarter) when I got her, but she is all grown now and her shell is around the size of a small golf ball.

She is very very goofy, and I originally thought she was a male and named her Pumba. Now let's get into the story of how she earned the name "Mama Snail".

I came home from work one day to find not one, not two, not three, not four, but FIVE clutches of snail eggs on my lid of my tank. Yeah. Apparently female mystery snails can hold on to fertile eggs for a long time before laying them. I panicked and threw out all but two egg clutches, because I was open to having baby snails, but not over 500 of them.

After a while (I can't remember how much time had passed) I noticed that some of the eggs in the clutches were open and baby snail shells were peeking through. I was ecstatic!!! I crumbled the clutches into the tank and watched all the little babies float to the bottom and start wiggling around. They are SO cute and I love watching them explore and climb all over each other to get to food. They are about two weeks old now, and the size of peas. Some are colored like the mother, some have the same shell but light bodies, and a couple even look like magenta mystery snails-- a rare color! I'm so excited to see what they look like as they grow older and I can't wait to see where they end up in their forever homes once they are old enough!

Oh, and get this: Mama Snail has had ANOTHER clutch of eggs hatch this morning. I'm being overrun by snails!! Luckily, my aunt is waiting for the last of her fish to pass, and then she is giving me her 20 gallon with all of the stuff that comes with it. I plan on moving all the babies into there so that they don't overcrowd my tiny 10 gallon!

Do y'all think I should give the babies to pet stores for store credit, sell on ebay, or what? I can't sell them on here-- my parents are strict.
 

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SaltyPhone
  • #2
Feel free to ship them my way
 

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eustoma01
  • #3
I think the easiest thing would be to try and sell them locally, that way you don't have to worry about shipping them out. You can join local facebook aquarium groups or on reddit there is a subreddit /r/aquaswap.
 
kallililly1973
  • #4
Great story! I agree with everyone on here. Send some "our" way try to sell some locally and try to get some store credit from your lfs. Good luck!!
 
Fishcat
  • #5
I may be in a similar position soon. I found out my two purple mysteries are male and female for certain when I found an egg clutch - part of the clutch had broken off and fallen in the water, which is probably just as well. Waiting to see if the others hatch.
 
SnailsGalore
  • #6
I turned my snail overcrowding problem into a surprisingly successful eBay venture. It’s really not hard to do, and everybody has gotten to their new homes safe and sound. I’ve been selling ramshorns but have hundreds of mystery snail babies I’ll need to find homes for soon. I’ll send them anyone and everyone’s way as soon as I get to my 50 posts!
 

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aquafrogg
  • Thread Starter
  • #7
Update! I’ve been able to give away a few and put a few in my brother’s tank (on accident— lol). We are currently building a 60 gal pond out of an old bath tub and all of them will go in there until they find their forever homes. I’ll be getting a fancy goldfish or two to go in there with them!!
 
kallililly1973
  • #8
Their forever homes could be the bellies of your goldies
 
aquafrogg
  • Thread Starter
  • #9
Their forever homes could be the bellies of your goldies
Do y’all think the Goldies would eat them?? They’re pretty big now and I plan on only getting tiny goldfish. By the time the Goldies grow the snails will be golfball sized.
 
MomeWrath
  • #10
Please don't put mystery snails in an outdoor pond. They are an invasive species and since they can travel out of water they can get into local waterways. If you can't rehome them, maybe set that 20 up with some pea puffers and grow your own food...but please don't put them outdoors.
 

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Minxxy
  • #11
Send them to me...smaller the better ill feed them to my puffers
 
aquafrogg
  • Thread Starter
  • #12
Please don't put mystery snails in an outdoor pond. They are an invasive species and since they can travel out of water they can get into local waterways. If you can't rehome them, maybe set that 20 up with some pea puffers and grow your own food...but please don't put them outdoors.
I don’t live next to any fresh water waterways besides a huge natural pond out in the woods behind my house. I’m next to the ocean. Do you still think it’d be a bad idea?
 
aquafrogg
  • Thread Starter
  • #13
Send them to me...smaller the better ill feed them to my puffers
Unfortunately I can’t do that to them... I’ve raised these guys since birth and I don’t think I’d be able to live with myself lol
 
Minxxy
  • #14
Lol
 

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aussieJJDude
  • #15
Many apple (mystery) snails are native to central and Southern North America... so it really depends on where you live if they are invasive or not.
 
MomeWrath
  • #16
I don’t live next to any fresh water waterways besides a huge natural pond out in the woods behind my house. I’m next to the ocean. Do you still think it’d be a bad idea?
I still wouldn't do it. Especially with a huge natural pond nearby. They can outcompete native species and wreck the ecosystem in that pond. Once they're outside your house they're out of your control, so putting anything in a backyard pond that can travel over land is basically releasing it into the wild.
 
aquafrogg
  • Thread Starter
  • #17
I still wouldn't do it. Especially with a huge natural pond nearby. They can outcompete native species and wreck the ecosystem in that pond. Once they're outside your house they're out of your control, so putting anything in a backyard pond that can travel over land is basically releasing it into the wild.
The pond is pretty much dead though. There’s no wildlife or fish that live in it besides tadpoles. It’s covered in algae that pretty much choked everything out. But I see wher you are coming from! I’ll think on it... I pretty much have no where else to put them. I’ll try to find a store that can take them or something.
 

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