Baby Snails

[m3drver]

The other night i noticed one of my trochus snail high up on the glass releasing some "white smoke". it did this for a few minutes off and on. I had no clue as to what was going on. it seemd to have stopped but then it released a small pellet. then another , some smoke and another pellet. about 6 or 7. now it hit me.. The snail was laying eggs and fertilizing them at the same time. Do Snails do this? I mean one snail taking care of laying AND fertilizing?

I tried to snap a couple of pics but they turned out pretty fuzzy. I'll see if I can get one of the better pics and post it.

Anyway, I gave it no mind until tonight. as usual before I hit the sack I gave the tank a glance and noticed a new "spot" on the glass.. hmmm... Now, i've had some small jelly fish looking things floating around but this was different, so i took a really close look and wouldn't you know it was a tiny snail! As I looked around the tank I saw some other new things in the water. I managed to pull one out of the water to examine a bit closer. these looked like tiny larva as best as I can describe it, I'm guessing of a snail. It had a black dot in the middle of a clear sack and a dark spiral shaped mass right next to the sack all encased in a membrane. this thing swims around but when it lands on the substrate it does look like a snail shell. Could this be another baby snail ?

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Sounds like you should break out the cigars.

I've had trochus do that exact same thing, and I've had the babies grow into "normal" sized trochus snails you'd buy in the store. Think my first generation of trochus have all bit the dust, but 1/2 the ones in my tank are the 2nd generation from that first one. (I just added another batch yesterday - first time I've added trochus in just under two years!)

Just a comment about what you saw though... I think the "pellets" you were referring to was it just pooping. When I've had trochus spawn in my tank, I've seen one or two snails "smoking" away in one part of the tank, and in another part of the tank another trochus will be ejecting little tiny looking eggs. Very different from the pellets that they normally poop out. While your one trochus was having a smoke break, there was probably another one somewhere you didn't see that was letting the eggs fly.

 

[m3drver]

Ok that makes sense.. I had never seen my snails poop either so i couldn't tell the difference. anyway, its kind of exciting to know that my snails were able to reproduce in my tank..

Thanks for the confirmation Kurt! now where's that cigar.....