Holy Snail Clutches Batman !

[blainep]

Anyone who's old enough to recognize that phrase knows there's only one real Batman. :laugh:

This week, life has been getting in the way of my fish and aquatic creature keeping, so I hadn't spent any time looking in the tanks.

Monday is water change day so I was in the fishroom for a few hours today.

To my surprise, my Cana snail tank is loaded with snail clutches, 6 of them, big ones !
The tank is covered, so it's pretty humid in there, so I think I'll leave them be for now, just to see what happens.

The next one may require the expertise of the Snail Goddess. Yes, I mean you Melody.
My second snail tank is where my latest arrivals are kept - Brigs, Spixies, Haustrums and a few MTS and common rams.
I've got a bunch of clutches, they look like big versions of the common snail clutches I see stuck to the sides of the tanks, except, these are above the water line, covered in a big ball of clear jelly and are much bigger than those of a common ram.

The final clutch is nestled in a ball of Java moss, clutch of eggs in a ball of clear jelly.

Any thoughts as to the origin of these eggs is appreciated and if they all hatch, anyone want any snails ?

[Melody]

A slimey Goddess - what an honour....lol.

Cana eggs shouldn't be too moist - totally different from Brigs. Ms. Pamelajo is actually more experienced with Cana's than I am. I swore I'd never get them because they're somewhat hard to move and get so big, but then I changed my mind. You might want to consider what you'll do with approximately 3000 Cana snails before you proceed any further....lol. What color are the snails?

As for your mass, sounds like Spixi or Marisa eggs, but they're normally below the waterline - could they water have evaporated below?

And get out of my snail market with your grande gestures buddy - some of us have to make a Christmas for little Timmy....ROFL KIDDING!

[Pamelajo]

Sounds like spixi eggs to me too, but usually they are underwater. Whatever you are doing or not doing, your snails are happy campers.
Canas clutches: I have been putting in a container with lid without water and floating in tank to keep the clutches at the same constant temp. House goes from 65 at night to 75 + during the day if we are home and have wood stove going. After about two weeks remove lid and add some water or put in plastic breeder floating on styrofoam. (Keep checking in the first two weeks incase they hatch early)

[AquaScaper]

I don't know what the heck all these snail keepers are doing right, but so far I've had absolutely no luck with even one single clutch. Mine must all be the same sex or something b/c they are all healthy, growing well and yet none are breeding :(.

[Melody]

Brig's lay when they wanna. Cana's lay because they Cana :rofl:. Sometimes a slight increase in temp works, less lights, more lights, extra waterchanges, moving them to a new tank, feeding more fresh vegies, etc, but there's little rhyme nor reason to it overall.

Either way, grow those snails out that Santa left here for you and surely you'll have both sexes then. Be careful what you wish for, once they start, they go nuts...lol....but I adopt ;) .

[AquaScaper]

Brig's lay when they wanna. Cana's lay because they Cana :rofl:. Sometimes a slight increase in temp works, less lights, more lights, extra waterchanges, moving them to a new tank, feeding more fresh vegies, etc, but there's little rhyme nor reason to it overall.

Either way, grow those snails out that Santa left here for you and surely you'll have both sexes then. Be careful what you wish for, once they start, they go nuts...lol....but I adopt ;) .

LOL good thing Santa got my list in time, otherwise I may have gotten more Rams....NOW those little buggers are the breeding pains they are well reputed for. I just removed 30 more from the 10gal, last harvest netted me 60 and I already see more babies....Next I'll be going to the nearest gun shop and purchasing a grenade, seems the only answer lol.:DevilGrin::rofl:

[Melody]

LOL You're feeding them too well. Unfortunately, when you have other snails/bottom feeders, its kinda difficult to cut back.

[CACAdmin]

Oh yes, rams are extremely prolific breeders...lol. I looked in one corner of my 70G the other day and couldn't see gravel for red rams. Hmmm! :Think: Now the question is, what fish find these little critters a dining delicacy? ... :idea:add those and your problem is problem solved. :DevilGrin:

[AquaScaper]

LOL You're feeding them too well. Unfortunately, when you have other snails/bottom feeders, its kinda difficult to cut back.

I had to take the apple snails out of that tank b/c they were not doing well with so much competition for food and the rams were starting to snack on the apple snail shells so I had to save them lol. I also lost a Hillstream loach, my thoughts are lack of food b/c soon as I drop anything in the tank the snails go psycho lol

[AquaScaper]

Oh yes, rams are extremely prolific breeders...lol. I looked in one corner of my 70G the other day and couldn't see gravel for red rams. Hmmm! :Think: Now the question is, what fish find these little critters a dining delicacy? ... :idea:add those and your problem is problem solved. :DevilGrin:

I've tried feeding them to all sorts of different fish and nobody seems to like em much, maybe I need to bring home a puffer and watch the snails scatter for dear life:DevilGrin::rofl:

[Melody]

<Remembering fondly how pretty Mrs. Aquascaper thought her first Ramshorn was...>:Angel:

[AquaScaper]

Uhuh...yes my first, by the 100th or so they all start looking alike and lose their luster. I'm surprised evolution hasn't produced little devil horns on them yet......

[Melody]

I'm surprised evolution hasn't produced little devil horns on them yet......

Strange, that's what the last guy I dated said about women in general ....

:DevilGrin:

[Melody]

Have any hatched out, Blaine? You didn't tell me what color the parents are yet. :no:

[blainep]

Haven't seen any hatch yet, that I've noticed anyway. The possible parents are a few colors, ranging from a light tan color to a fairly dark,striped brown for the Cana's.

The other clutches, if they are from the Spixis, are from the stock you sent me Melody.

I haven't checked yet today, just got home from work.

[Melody]

OH good, no golds, I'd be after them if they were and I have to behave...lol.

I'll wait for the baby pic's then :) .

[blainep]

Doesn't look like any have hatched as yet. I'm not really sure how long it should take.

If I know me, I'll either screw hatching these clutches up royally, or I'll get it just perfect and have enough snails to give one to every single person in the city. :laugh:

If I have any sucess, I'll post lots of pics (maybe in the classifieds or swap meet area).

[blainep]

Looks like the first clutch has hatched. It looks like it fell apart, and upon inspection, I can see a few wee tiny snails in the tank.
I have no idea how many hatched out because they blend into the substrate so well.
I imagine they'll grow fairly quickly the first couple of weeks, so I may be able to get a better idea how many there are.

The clutches are still coming. There is at least 4 new ones, one is stuck to the underside of the lid, every time I open the lid I see it there.

[Melody]

Congrat's! Time to start destroying or selling them though, I'm afraid, because you need at least 1.5G's per snail to grow it out to a small saleable size, and closer to 2.5 to raise it to adulthood because Cana's are the baseball size ones. You have hundreds in your tanks now. That's not a lecture, its a heads-up from someone who has learned the hard way....lol.

Cana's are hard to move because they're plant-eaters and in fact, its hard to even give them away in any great number. You can usually move them for the cost of shipping or give them to a store, they're just a lot of work until then.

Nice job on the hatching - I went for longer than I care to admit without being able to hatch so much as one....lol....I think I fussed over them too much like I usually do with everything.:Embarassing:

[Melody]

How's the babies doing Blaine? Can you tell if they're striped or gold yet? Not that I want any if they're Gold, because I have to stop that. No REALLY....lol.

I just thought of something - by the time they're a decent size it will be pond season. They're a popular pond snail and they can't over-winter in our climate so you should be able to move some then. :D

[blainep]

The shells seem to be a light colour, can't tell for sure if there are any stripes.