Mystery Snail Clutch Journal

[Rtessy]

*Background- I've had a wild colored mystery snail for a while, who's male, and I decided to go try and find him a lady friend, lol. So, she's the classic gold Inca snail, and I did see them mate a few times, but since the females can store sperm I'm not sure that the male I have is 100% the father. She laid a clutch a few days after I got her, sadly the laid them in the water and some of the eggs were only half eggs. I did try and incubate some of them, but they had all drowned. I got ready to wait two more weeks for another clutch, but the very next day, she laid some properly. My water level was about 2-2 1/2 inches lower at that point. Ten days later, she laid another clutch, and yet another four days later. Ladies and genltemen, that is four clutches in 15 days.
I'm going to make this journal just to see what the babies grow up to look like, and to see if there are different genetics between clutches. Also, I can try and answer questions if need be.
The first clutch I removed from the glass because I have had little moisture since my bubbler broke, but I still have a lid. I put in in a Ziploc sandwich container. I put it on a paper towel on the lid, which I drilled large holes into, and I drilled tiny holes into the bottom for airflow. I drilled a hole and got a suction cup to attach to the side. I then placed the bottom of another sandwich container on the top as a lid to trap moisture.
The first clutch began to hatch two days ago, with a whole two babies emerging. Yesterday, two more came out. This morning two more, but this afternoon, 27 were in the bottom water part, 42 on top on the lid, 7-8 on the underside of the lid, and about 30-40 still in/on the eggs.
Bascially, once they hatch they began to search for water and went through the holes in the lid to the bottom holding part.
Pictures:
1 and 2 are the first failed clutch
Picture 3 is the second clutch right after it was laid
4 is the clutch after I took it off the side.... some of the eggs closed back up some didn't
5 the clutch a few days later
6 the clutch the day before the first hatch
7 day before the first hatch!

 

[Rtessy]

Double post because I want more pics! Lol.
1: the first baby!
2: size comparison with Mom (I was trying to show it to someone else who thought the snail was dead because of the white part, that's why I labeled it "tail"
3: you can see the third baby, so far they are all tan/yellow with black speckles and white bodies
4: the babies this morning, the clutch was like this since yesterday but they didn't really move
5: the 27 in the holding tank
6: the 42
7: the container after I helped get most of the 42 into it.
8: the presumed happy couple, lol
9: the other two clutches, I placed a damp paper towel under one, just to see if it helps, that one is about a week old now, but was four days I think at the time of the pic. The other was brand new, not even a day old.

 

[Mazeus]

Cool! I can't wait to see the colour variations.

 

[Rtessy]

Me too! I know the female was kept only with other golds and a few ivorys before, so I guess those may be a possibility too... at least for the first clutch or so....

 

[Mazeus]

I love mystery snails so much. I plan on getting a couple for my 40g.

 

[Rtessy]

Me too, they're so cute and personable! I never expected a snail to have so much personality. I plan on keeping a handful since my 60 is pretty understocked, but after that I'll probably be selling/giving away some on here *wink wink*

 

[Mazeus]

Are you in the US?

 

[Rtessy]

Dang, I am and I see you're not... sorry
Edit: this is going to be a really weird, potentially offensive, and unrelated question, but I have some friends from England and they kept pet Silkie chickens in their houses and litter box trained them and everything, is that common?

 

[Mazeus]

Oh well, too bad I would have loved to have some.

I've never heard of someone keeping chickens indoors. There are quite a few people who have chickens in their garden/yard but not in the house. I'm impressed they could get them litter box trained!

 

[Rtessy]

Haha yeah it was crazy, especially because it was a couple different people, just wondering if it was more common in the UK. Sorry I'm too far away to ship...
Anyway, turns out that I seriously underestimated the 30-40 left in the eggs because I just moved 61 from the lid to the holding part and there are still some left!

 

[Rtessy]

Here's a picture of some of them from this morning. A few more came out from the egg clutch, but the clutch is basically non-existent now so I think this is it. A few of them are nibbling on some kale I put in last night, but most show no interest. I'm going to try feeding some micropellets and crushed goldfish pellets and see how they react to that. I'll leave them in the tiny Ziploc breeder box thing I made for a few days, then move them to a larger one. I'm going to keep them in the tank as they seem unable to climb out the holes and it'll be much easier to keep the parameters good in the big tank

 

[Mazeus]

Very cute! Keep us updated about the colours!

 

[Rtessy]

Looks like the second successfully laid clutch will hatch today!
Some of the babies are taking on a stronger gold coloration than others, some of them seem to be darkening, but I think it's just too early to tell.... I'm so curious to how they'll turn out. They've about doubled in size, and their appeties have grown massively. They kind of look like tiny helmets, lol

 

[Rtessy]

Well, it definitely hatched, and I have a bunch more babies. The older ones are more than twice as large, and the first two curls of their shells are yellow, the rest seems to be brown. Also, their bodies appear more grey/white

 

[Mazeus]

Some of them look purple in the picture (right hand side).

 

[Rtessy]

Huh, so they do. Still a waiting game, lol.

 

[Rtessy]

It's hard to tell, but the larger ones are looking pretty green. The other egg clutch looks like it hatch tommorow or the next day... I'm surprised the female hasn't laid more eggs, considering the time frame for the first four clutches. Also I moved all the babies from the first two clutches into one larger Tupperware I drilled.

 

[Ms rose]

It's been a month for 1 of mine and still nothing. They were mating so I don't no what I am doing wrong, congrats on you babies

 

[Rtessy]

It's been a month for 1 of mine and still nothing. They were mating so I don't no what I am doing wrong, congrats on you babies

Dang, I'm sorry you're not having much luck. Have you dropped your water level at least 2 inches? Also, mine seemed to lay clutches the day after I dropped a ton of food in, doesn't have to be quality food, but I dropped in several goldfish pellets... My female snail ate in just a few hours the amount of food my goldfish eats in a day

 

[Ms rose]

I have clutches but I can't seem to get them to hatch. I had 4 but yesterday one was bad so I disposed of it, now I have 3 and although I can tell there is snails in them, seem like they aren't ever going to hatch. I did same as you for incubation. Idk what s going on with it