Mystery Snail help

[rckstr1253]

Well I bought a lot of 10 purple/magenta mystery snail baby pea size off ebay and they were doing great until yesterday. I noticed a bunch were upside down but moving as if they were on the surface of the water but upside down and moved from one side of the container I had them in to the other. Later on that same day, they were all connected together with this clear gooey type substance....does anybody know what this means or what that stuff might of been? Today I woke up thinking they were dead but to my surprise they were all stuck together with that same gooey substance, but a few were moving around. Well I took them out of the container and threw them temporarily into my 2 gallon betta fish tank. I left 2 that are on top of one another with a gooey clear substance stuff hanging from themselves, still in the container. So anybody have an idea what is going on? These are only BB size mystery snails so i don't think they are mating.....and certaintly not all of them?

 

[jsoong]

Walking upside down at the water surface is normal ... This is actually quite neat to watch, as the mystery snails use the surface tension to walk on. Sometimes thy will also do some upside down surfing in the current by clinging to the surface.

I am not sure what the gooey stuff is ... Snails do make a bit of slime to help it move along surfaces, but I have never seen mine lump together in a big blob with the stuff. <But I have never have babies ... I got mine at 1/2".>

 

[rckstr1253]

Hey thanks for the info....and yea i have older mystery snails that never clumped together......I heard from a few sources that some mystery snail species do indeed lay their eggs below the water ina gooey substance but can bb size snails mate?

 

[jlk]

Is it a clear, jelly-like substance? Just a guess here but i think its eggs!

 

[rckstr1253]

yea its a gooey substance but it doesn't look like the egg clutches I was told that mystery snails lay above the water line

 

[jsoong]

Depends on what kind of mystery snails you have ...

<LFS call them mystery snails because it is a mystery to them what they are selling! >

The common apple snail (P. bridgesii) lay eggs above water. They don't mate until 3/4" or bigger. Some other species do lay eggs under water, but I wouldn't think they would get entangled in egg sacs .... and FAIK, all species of apple snails are not mature when that small. <The only snails I have that lay eggs at 1/4" are pond snails ...>

 

[rckstr1253]

Well I have albino mystery snails, blue mystery snails, gold mystery snails and the purple/magenta mystery snails. The ones doing this are the purple/magenta ones. I think they are the normal mystery snail.

 

[Cornstar]

Wow, blue and purple apple snails sound neat! I have only seen black and gold apple snails, wish I could lay my hands on some blue snails.