Mystery Snail New Baby Help

So, I hatched my first clutch a few days ago and it went perfectly with no loss. I put them in their own 10 gallon bare bottom tank. But last night I hatched my second clutch and it didn't go as well. About half the eggs on the clutch were not fertile(it was that snails first clutch) which made it a lot harder to get the fully formed snails out. I got them out though, and put them in the 10 gallon with the other babies. Now I'm thinking a good chunk of them are dead. I can't focus on each snail well enough to sort the dead from the alive without getting a massive migraine. I have a headache right now just thinking about doing that again. So.

1. How do I tell between the dead ones and the live ones without getting a migraine? Should I suction up all the suspected dead ones with a Turkey baster into a small container and give myself a migraine anyway or is there an easier way?

2. If I just leave the dead ones, how bad will it mess up my parameters? I suffer from debilitating migraines as is and didn't even think about how excruciating all this would be lol.

3. What do the babies usually do for the first couple weeks of life? The ones from the first clutch are all over the glass and to my knowledge have not come down for food (greens beans, bits of algae pellets, shell remains). Is this normal, or are they starving? What can I do?

Side note, I know that there will be millions of babies to come, I have 8 clutches still incubating and one just laid last night, but I can't help but be stressed about this rn.

(Tank is cycled, has only baby snails, nitrates stay at 40 bc that's how it comes out my tap, temp is at 78, and I modified my filter to reduce water movement.)

 

1. Smell them, you will be able to tell trust me
2. If you leave the dead ones in for just 24 hours you can and most likely will get an ammonia spike which will kill the majority of the live and healthy ones.
3. Give them blanched zucchinI and algae tablets

 

1. Smell them, you will be able to tell trust me
2. If you leave the dead ones in for just 24 hours you can and most likely will get an ammonia spike which will kill the majority of the live and healthy ones.
3. Give them blanched zucchinI and algae tablets

They are like, the tiniest things in the world, I can't smell them all lol

 

They are like, the tiniest things in the world, I can't smell them all lol

Oh right
Well I would just net the ones that aren’t moving and put them in a small bowl or tank with some algae wafers and blanched zucchinI if they don’t come out to eat then they are certainly dead

 

Oh right
Well I would just net the ones that aren’t moving and put them in a small bowl or tank with some algae wafers and blanched zucchinI if they don’t come out to eat then they are certainly dead

Well, none of the babies have eaten yet. I think they are still surviving off the egg shell remains. I've removed the ones that weren't stuck to the bottom of the tank and put them in a small bowl and my roommate is staring at them for signs of life right now. I assume that the clusters of them that I couldn't easily suction up were stuck to the glass because they are alive. I hope.

 

Well, none of the babies have eaten yet. I think they are still surviving off the egg shell remains. I've removed the ones that weren't stuck to the bottom of the tank and put them in a small bowl and my roommate is staring at them for signs of life right now. I assume that the clusters of them that I couldn't easily suction up were stuck to the glass because they are alive. I hope.

Well if they are only a couple days old they may not move to much. Sorry I didn’t realize they were BABY BABIES lol. If you check water parameters every 48 hours you would know if there is a dead one because the ammonia will spike.

 

Well if they are only a couple days old they may not move to much. Sorry I didn’t realize they were BABY BABIES lol. If you check water parameters every 48 hours you would know if there is a dead one because the ammonia will spike.

Yes baby babies, literally hatched last night lol. So not moving much is common? I never learned how active the newborns were supposed to be. Mine seem to be pretty lazy so I wasn't sure if tht was cause for concern or not.

 

Hiiii. I’ve been in your shoes soo many times. I’ve actually picked out hundreds of tiny suspected dead snails with tweezers. It went horribly, don’t try that.

1/2 Just leave them. They’re so so small they won’t mess up the parameters. Even if they were in a 3 gallon and they all died, they’re too small to mess anything up. It will not hurt anything to leave them.

3 Usually they just snail around and hang out on the glass. They don’t eat for the first week or two. They eat some microscopic things off the side, they eat tiny pieces of the egg clutch. They’re fine. Offering them food just will make the water dirty when the food starts breaking down.

You need to get a really good quality fish flake That is at least mostly MEAT this is a crucial developmental point and they need a good meaty flake. Ive used betta flakes and goldfish flakes and tropical fish flakes. Look at the ingredients and find different meats, something with krill, crab, or shrimp is good but it has to be a flake. On around the tenth day sink a small flake near the front of the tank. If they are ready to eat they will all climb on top of it and eat it. If they all are fighting over it, add another. If not wait a few days and try again. You don’t want leftover flakes sitting in the tank so be careful to not give to many or just turkey baste the extra flakes out. Always feed the babies at the very front of the tank. Within a three weeks of age they will start coming to the front when they are hungry. That is so important because they are going to need to eat more and more as they get bigger. You’ll see them coming to the front and waving their antennas around and you’ll realize you didn’t feed them enough so you know to feed them more from them on.

Something important: these snails have so many babies because they’re not all meant to survive. It’s a survival of the fittest thing in the wild. Even in the best tank they will not all make it. About 20-50% make it. So even the clutch that hatched fine will not all make it. You would kill your self trying to pick out all of them. The shells snails are small and the shells are soft so the empty shells will degrade into broken white pieces almost like big sand pieces. So it doesn’t always look like a tiny snail graveyard. When they are about the size of a pea that pretty much guarantees that they have made it. They’re going to live for sure. That is when you start feeding them pellets/wafers as well.

Also don’t pick them up! They’re so easy to crush. And pulling or scraping them off the glass can easily kill them. Just let them be until they’re pea sized then you can gently poke them off the glass or pick them up and move them if they’re not stuck and they’re fine. Make sure your filter intake is modified with a sponge or panty hose. If you use a sponge it will actually collect micro algae and the babies will eat off of the sponge which is kind of cool.

STOP STRESSING you’re doing great! I’ve been breeding them for over THREE YEARS I’ve raised and sold THOUSANDS. I promise it’s okay! Until the snails are big (if they’re in there alone) just do about a gallon water change a week and check the parameters to see how your cycle is going.