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Okay, here's an odd question: my ten-gallon tank is populated by two apple snails, one tiny african frog and one little Buenos Aires Tetra (yeah, he's a loner--see "Introducing-Squiggle!" in "Tetra Talk" for more info. about him). One snail is a lot lighter in color than the other, which is a rich, orangy-gold color. I just noticed on the lighter snail this tiny bunch of clear balls with little dots in the middle . . . eggs??? I thought apple snails did their egg-laying above the water line, so I don't think it could be that, but what else could it be? applesnail.net's pictures of snail eggs look nothing like these. I also saw the darker snail climb up on the lighter one's back before I noticed the clear stuff on its back--the lighter one swung its shell back and forth wildly (well, as wildly as a snail can, I guess), and then the darker one eventually got off. I've never seen that kind of thing before. What gives? Any ideas?

They sound like eggs, but not apple snail eggs. Those are pearly pink and as you said, above the waterline.

The eggs on your snail might be pest snails, or well, how do those frogs spawn? on the surface like other frogs or underwater? because they could well be frog eggs i suppose

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Hmm. . . well, it's day two, and they're still there. I wish I could take a picture of 'em, but being clear, it's hard for my digital camera to pick up.

Perhaps it could be from that stray, tiny little snail that I found a few days ago, but I only saw one (then again, he disapears, so there could be more for all I know. I could've sworn that there weren't any on the plant when I got it. I don't mind, though, the more, the merrier).

Aside from the two apple snails, I've only got the one frog and the one tetra. I doubt that, if they are eggs, that they'd hatch, but if they do, I'll be really interested in what they end up being.

Imagine, though--what if the poor thing is carrying around eggs for another species? Poor guy is probably grossed out! Hehehe.

Was it round tiny balls earthtone color, or did it look like a cloudy substance that is whitish and has tiny dark speckles. Also snails of some species will mate with the male crawling on the back of the female and they have sex similar to humans, I won't go into to the details. The wierd stuff could be products of reproduction.

Last edited by openwater at 22-Oct-2004 20:21

Well, it's gone now, but they were actually clear with little dark specks in the middles. I'm kinda concerned about their habits, though: at first, I thought it was kinda cute that the darker one was "piggy-backing" on the lighter one, but it's ALL THE TIME now. I looked up applesnail.net to see what snail mating looks like, and I'm not sure if it's that or if the darker snail is just lazy and looking for a free ride. The darker one often clings to the lighter one, knocking it off its foot so it's laying on it's side (I usually refer to the lighter one as a female and the darker one as a male, but I'm not sure). Are they just goofing off, or are they, erm, "getting intimate"?

Well, THIS answers my question . . .

After days and days of the darker snail hanging on to the lighter snail, here it is: a big bumpy clump of orangy-yellow stuff about an inch or so above the water line.

DEFINATELY snail eggs.

Well, I guess it's off to Petsmart again to buy more plants for the snails to hide in, since I KNOW Squiggle, my Buenos Aires Tetra, and Bub, the little african frog, probably wouldn't mind dining on escargot, and I'd like a few of them to survive.

To celebrate their newfound parenthood, I think the two snails deserve names. Any suggestions? I've already named pets after Greek gods (for my mice; I prefer the Greek version over their Roman counterparts), and I'm not into duplicating names. I'm 99.9% sure that the lighter one is the female, and the darker one is male.

If I may get ahead of myself here, I was also thinking about re-locating a few of the survivors (hoping that there'll be some) to my 55 gallon tank with the goldfish after they've reached a comfortable size. I've had an apple snail do quite well in there before, he grew well over 2" in diameter.

The only other concern I have, other than the little guys getting eaten, is "what if they survive TOO well"? I don't want to kill any of 'em. I guess I'll just have to see how it goes.

Correction: Upon closer inspection, the eggs are more of a beige-y color than an orangy-color. I looked up eggs on applesnail.net for more ways to help the little guys along--are there any other ways to help give them the best chance of survival? I took some water from the aquarium and poured it gently over the eggs, hoping it'll help them from dehydrating too much, and I turned off the light again to reduce drying. Will that help at all?

I have a couple of deferent species of apple snails in my tank. According to applesnail.net some snails will "mount" other snails , but are unable to breed. The site says that cross breeding of species is not possible. My smaller darker snail will crawl up on my larger golden apple and have seen the darker snail ride across the whole tank on the back of the other snail.

Would two non-similar species be able to produce non-viable eggs? I'm not sure if they're of different species, I just assumed that it was just a color variation of the same species.

I hope the eggs hatch--I'm really psyched about this whole thing. I even bought six new plants for the tank for them.

One of my snails, I believe the large golden apple, has laid eggs on the underside of the hood above the water line. I do not believe these eggs were fertilized, cause of the different species of snails. As to the color variations of the same species I'm not sure. When I get more time I'll going to research the net on it. The first time the clutch seem underdeveloped compared to the next time. The second time the eggs I though were soft and spongy. I was wrong, they seem hard and the mass felt very concrete.

Last edited by openwater at 27-Oct-2004 18:16

Oh, my . . .

I just lifted up the aquarium lid, and sometime between the time I left for work and now, something happened.

There's ANOTHER clutch of eggs!

Pretty much right next to the light bulb!

I guess I have to move 'em, lest they get too dried out. Since I'm not sure if they're viable or not, I won't take the risk and I'll act as if they were. I'm going to see applesnail.net's advice on how to relocate them, but if anyone here has any helpful tips, that'd be much appreciated.

. . . and my snails are STILL going at it, right NOW!!!

. . . frisky little guys, aren't they?

. . . and, upon further research at applesnail.net, I'm 99% sure that they ARE of the same species, just of different color variation: The female is almost (though not quite so white) as the ivory snail variant of the Pomacea bridgesii, while the male is a rich yellow, exactly like the "regular" ones of that species.

. . . wonder what the babies will look like, if they hatch . . . .

Well good luck with them and keep us updated..

Well, I've decided on names: Bonnie and Clyde. ("Clyde" just sounds like a great name for a snail, for some reason).

Anyway, Clutch A is about 1 inch by 3/4 of an inch; Clutch B is a little thinner, but a bit over 2 inches long.

. . . that's a lotta snails . . .

Whew . . . today I found clutch #3.

. . . do they ever, erm, "run out" of energy??