Artificially hatching apple snail clutches?

[Oohitsae]

Need some help. I've been waiting on my magenta orange eyed mystery snails to start laying for months now, and 2 days ago they finally started!
I first noticed it when I found one of my smaller guys escaped the tank and was on the floor 5' away. It was alive and in good shape but the next morning had escaped again. I lowered water level to make it a bit harder for it to escape again (yes I'm sure it's the same one as she has a weird scrape on the shell) and woke up to 3 clutches the next morning. Then today I woke up to 4 more. It's insane.

Now as you have already figured, I don't have a hood on the tank and from everything I've been reading it's kind of necessary to have to keep enough moisture on the clutch to keep the eggs from drying out, so I removed them off the tank walls and set them on top of an old breeder net until I figure out what needs to be done.

What should be done? I've read that putting water at the bottom of a container with craft mesh about an inch above it to hold the eggs and then some saran wrap with holes to cover it is a good route, but is there anything more that I need to do for them? I've only recently learned about misting them, so I'm not sure if that's a necessary practice? Would it be okay to just dip the eggs in water every day for a couple seconds? I don't have any spray bottles that haven't had any type of hair product in them on hand so I'd have to run to the store if needed, and in the mean time they would be going without moisture.

Oh, and is 2 weeks pretty average for hatching? Do I need to help them hatch or can/should I just let it happen on it's own? How will I know it's ready? I'm sure I've seen some of the answers to these before, but I can't remember off hand and it'd be great to have it in one place.

Anyways, I'm really hoping atleast a couple of you have some good experience to share. I know that a lot of people aren't a big fan of snails, and I don't blame them, pest snails gave everything a bad name for the most part, but I really enjoy these mysteries!

 

[Fishfur]

I use a damp paper towel in the bottom of a two cup deli container, with something to support the clutches above the damp towel. Mesh, net, plastic canvas, whatever. May need to mist lightly daily. Make some holes in the lid and float the container on the tank water to maintain temperatures.

I'm a huge fan of mystery snails. I'm trying to build them a spawning area above their tank. Have not yet seen magenta orange eyed snails.. sounds lovely. Got pics ?

More like four weeks to hatch, not two. If the tank area is humid enough they can hatch naturally, but you will get larger numbers if you keep them more humid. Not wet, just humid. Don't want the container to be covered in water droplets, just very moist air inside it.

 

[Oohitsae]

I use a damp paper towel in the bottom of a two cup deli container, with something to support the clutches above the damp towel. Mesh, net, plastic canvas, whatever. May need to mist lightly daily. Make some holes in the lid and float the container on the tank water to maintain temperatures.

I'm a huge fan of mystery snails. I'm trying to build them a spawning area above their tank. Have not yet seen magenta orange eyed snails.. sounds lovely. Got pics ?

More like four weeks to hatch, not two. If the tank area is humid enough they can hatch naturally, but you will get larger numbers if you keep them more humid. Not wet, just humid. Don't want the container to be covered in water droplets, just very moist air inside it.

Thanks for the help! I was worried nobody would answer because not many people are fans of them lol. I'm finding out that's not true with the Facebook group I just made with a friend though.

So 4 weeks, I don't know if I can wait that long! Lol
I've got them sitting on top of a breeder net in my tank currently, do you think 2 days in open air is too much?
I just had 2 more clutches laid overnight, I'm going to have to start getting rid of some before they hatch lol but I want to make sure they are fertized first.

I don't have any great pics of them, but here's the best I have

 

[Fishfur]

Open air per se is not necessarily bad. If it's very dry air, it may dry out some of the eggs on the outside of the clutch. But the ones inside should still be ok.

When you say on top of the breeder net, I hope they are actually not in water.. if they are, any wet eggs will drown. Must be kept above water.

Pretty cool to see eggs being laid. I have a video of it somewhere, if I can find it. Snail looks very odd, with some body parts exposed that normally are not seen. One egg at a time appears from under the shell every few seconds, so a big clutch takes some time to be laid. Looks like the eggs are on a conveyer belt as each one slides across the snail's flesh, and ends up sticking to the ones laid before it.

Eggs are nearly always laid in the dead of night, I only caught it on video by luck, having got up to go to the bathroom. Decided to look at the tanks in the dark to see what I could see, and saw light glinting off the snail. I grabbed my camera when I realized what she was up to. She was on the filter of her tank, without much room. She laid only a small clutch, but still, very cool to see.

As more eggs accumulate, the clutch slowly takes on the characteristic shape. Size varies, but large clutches can run to 300 babies if all survive, and as you say, you do have to be sure they are fertile. You can always dispose of newborn snails if you have too many. But you might want to wait 'til you are sure what colour they are. It is not always obvious what colour they are, and may not match the parents, even if they are both the same colour.

Anyone keeping puffers or some types of loach will be happy to use extras as feeders. Or you can sell them. Shipping them is relatively easy to do, and lots of people are willing to buy them, especially less common colour variants.

Just have to check for any shipping restrictions by country or State. Some States don't allow some snails across State lines. California won't allow either the Giant Apple snail or the Giant Ramshorn snail in.

Btw, don't see any pics, good or bad.

 

[Oohitsae]

Open air per se is not necessarily bad. If it's very dry air, it may dry out some of the eggs on the outside of the clutch. But the ones inside should still be ok.

When you say on top of the breeder net, I hope they are actually not in water.. if they are, the eggs will drown. Must be kept above water.

Pretty cool to see eggs being laid. I have a video of it somewhere, if I can find it. Snail looks very odd, having body parts exposed that normally are not seen, and an egg appears from under the shell every few seconds, like it's on a conveyer belt as it slides across the snail's flesh to be stuck to the ones laid before it.

As more accumulate, they stick to each other and it slowly takes that longish, oblong sort of shape. Size varies, but large ones can run to 300 babies if all survive.

Usually done in the dead of night, I only caught it on video by luck, having got up to go to the bathroom and decided to look at the tanks in the dark to see what I could see. Saw light glinting off the snail and grabbed my camera when I realized what she was up to. She was on the filter of the tank she was in, and laid only a small clutch, but still, very cool to see.

Btw, don't see any pics, good or bad.

It's fairly humid, I've "misted" them a couple times today and turned them last night because it seemed like the bottom was pretty dried out.

And no, not in water, they are on the top nettin about a 1/2" above the water line

My snails are laying at night so i'm not actually seeing it be done, but I've got a feeling I know which ones they are because they creep right under the water line all evening.

I get off work soon so when I get home I'll try to get some pics of the set up.

Do you have any advice for shipping the clutches?

 

[Fishfur]

I am not certain you can ship clutches, though I can try to find out.

Baby snails you can ship.. and there are instructions online, or I can find out how a friend on another forum does hers, she ships all the time quite successfully.

I would not necessarily turn the eggs over. Misting is ok, but I sometimes wonder if it bothers the snail development if the eggs are moved a lot, like some reptile's eggs. Many of them don't hatch if they are moved from their original orientation after being laid. If collected, they are marked as they lie so they can be placed with the same side up all the time. I believe it is due to the yolk being attached both to the shell and the baby reptile, and if the egg is turned the yolk may be damaged, or torn and that is the end of the baby.

I don't know that this happens to mystery snail eggs. I am not even sure they have a yolk. It is just a precaution I prefer to observe, in case it might matter. So when I put them into a container, I make sure to place them as close to the same orientation as I found them in.

 

[Oohitsae]

I am not certain you can ship clutches, though I can try to find out.

Baby snails you can ship.. and there are instructions online, or I can find out how a friend on another forum does hers, she ships all the time quite successfully.

I would not necessarily turn the eggs over. Misting is ok, but I sometimes wonder if it bothers the snail development if the eggs are moved a lot, like some reptile's eggs. Many of them don't hatch if they are moved from their original orientation after being laid. If collected, they are marked as they lie so they can be placed with the same side up all the time. I believe it is due to the yolk being attached both to the shell and the baby reptile, and if the egg is turned the yolk may be damaged, or torn and that is the end of the baby.

I don't know that this happens to mystery snail eggs. I am not even sure they have a yolk. It is just a precaution I prefer to observe, in case it might matter. So when I put them into a container, I make sure to place them as close to the same orientation as I found them in.

Hmm, I've seen a lot of people advertise mystery clutches for sale on different sites, and I've read a bit about how they are shipped, but this will be the first time I've done it so I'm wanting to make sure I do it as we'll as possible. I've got some decent advice so far so I hope I will be okay, but put a guarantee that if they don't hatch by 4wks after arrival I'll replace them.
Thanks for all your help! I won't turn them anymore now that I know that, I'll just move them into the Tupperware once I get the time to go to the store

 

[Oohitsae]

Here's some pictures of the set up. It looks much closer to the water than it actually is.

A couple of the clutches are a bit damaged so I don't know if they are viable or not, but I'm going to see what happens.

Do you have any idea how many they may have?

 

[Fishfur]

Slight damage to part of the clutch will do in the eggs there, but should not harm the rest.
I had no idea you could ship clutches ! I love what I learn here as much as being able to share what I know. I wonder if it's ok to ship them over the border.. I'd love to have magenta snails !

 

[Oohitsae]

Slight damage to part of the clutch will do in the eggs there, but should not harm the rest.
I had no idea you could ship clutches ! I love what I learn here as much as being able to share what I know. I wonder if it's ok to ship them over the border.. I'd love to have magenta snails !

Thanks.
I doubt it'd be okay to ship across the border. I know that live fish definitely aren't so I wouldn't want to risk it.

 

[wildroseofky]

Keep in mind that you will have hundreds of snails if all the egg sacks hatch. I hatched only three small sacks and had over 200 snails. It takes on average around 4 months for you to be able to tell what color they will be. They have to be about the size of a .50 cent piece. They have a high bio load and will over whelm a tanks ability to get rid of the ammonia requiring lots of water changes or a very large container to raise them. Here is a good website to get information on apple mystery snails The Apple Snail (Ampullariidae) Website. Lots of snail lovers there.