Post by AlienSnail on Sept 5, 2010 8:54:15 GMT
BREEDING
Snails breeding is an encouraging sign that you are keeping them right.
Most snails are hermaphrodites; they have both male and female sexual organs.
A few types can even self-fertilise with viable eggs.
Snails’ sexual organs are located just behind the head on the right hand side. In adult snails this organ will often be slightly visible as a white or cream bulge. When mating they can extend this out by a surprisingly long way!
Snails will often circle and climb around each other a while before mating, but then again they do this anyway! They will position their heads and extend their organs into one another’s and an exchange of sperm will take place. The time this takes varies from species to species. Pomatia get very tactile before mating.
Snails, once mated, can with-hold sperm within their bodies, keeping it viable for many months before using it to produce eggs, and will often wait until conditions are right.
Once fertilised and ready the snail may then continue to hold the eggs inside for an extended period, even until the day before they start to hatch!.
Typically though the snails mate, a few weeks later (varying from species to species) they will burrow into soil and cock their heads to the right, dropping the eggs out of the sexual opening one by one in a pile.
This is not always the case. I have one daft Marginata who sits on the ceiling dropping it’s eggs onto whatever is below it!
The snail will often crawl away afterwards, though it may sit there for a while resting. Snails do not guard their eggs, but may just sit there out of tiredness. It is common for a snail to rest for a few days after laying.
Some snails will lay more readily than others. Fulica are regular layers, Reticaltas and Tigers are harder to breed.
Clutch and egg sizes also vary greatly.
To encourage fussy seasonal snails to lay eggs you can reduce food and slightly reduce the temperature for a week, then increase. They can be tricked into thinking it’s the breeding season!
Provide plenty of substrate and do not over-crowd the tank. Wipe away the slime from the sides as too much slime can create the illusion to a snail that it’s over-crowded.
Some species will readily breed in communal tanks, such as Marginatas, and Fulica, while others, such as Reticulatas prefer to be only with their own kind before they will breed.
Snail species cannot interbreed, though subspecies of the same snail can, e.g. similar sized Marginata sub-species may interbreed, Fulica sub-species such as Rodatzi and Hamilli etc.
To hatch the eggs: -
Check for eggs regularly. It is worth scooping them gently up and putting them in a slightly ventilated tub covered with damp soil, and placing this in a permanently warm place, such as within the tank, or in the airing cupboard.
Eggs will be killed off by extremes of temperature and lack of moisture. Moving them and disturbing them a lot may also result in damage to the embryo, so once moved to a safe spot try to leave them alone.
That said please check for hatchlings regularly, as they may hatch the day after being laid, or may take up to 8 or more weeks, depending on species and length of time held within the parent.
The Hatchlings
These will be a miniature of the adult, and will be independent from day one. They will eat part of their eggs at first, This is very important for them, hatchlings allowed to eat their egg shells are usually stronger and healthier than those who are not.
After that they will take the same food as their parents, including the cuttlefish/calcium.
Many keepers prefer to keep their young/little snails separate to the adults to reduce the risk of being accidentally damaged by the larger heavier snails. From experience, and that of others, I have found that keeping the hatchlings in a small tub for the first few weeks is generally beneficial for them, as they never wander far from food. I have found their growth and survival rate to be better with this method.
Responsible breeding
Wanted or not?
Please consider how much room you have for the new snails, or whether you can re-home them. Some species will practically command a waiting list of eager new owners, others are hard to even give away..
Fulica are prolific breeders and it is common to find young fulica up on eBay, forums and other places looking for a new home. Please make egg-checking a regular weekly part of you snail-care routine, and freeze unwanted eggs.
Unwanted Eggs.
Must be destroyed before disposal. It is illegal and irresponsible to allow foreign creatures into a wild environment. Many cases of creatures surviving, breeding and causing an irreversible and devastating effect on the wildlife and environment have been reported. This is true of snails too.
Also it is more humane to destroy eggs whilst they are still undeveloped.
Therefore it is strongly advised to use a method such as freezing to ‘deal’ with unwanted eggs. Place the eggs in a food-bag and freeze for a few hours, then dispose.
Be selective about the snails you wish to breed
Select only large and healthy snails with strong shells with even and normal growth. It is detrimental to the captive-bred gene pool if you allow runts or those with poor growth/other problems to reproduce.
There are questions raised as to whether or not inbreeding has damaged the genes of snails. There is some debate over this, but it's something that many people wish to consider when choosing a mate for their snail.
Live-births
Iredalei are one of the species that give birth to live young. They hold the eggs inside until they hatch, then the snails are born.
If keeping more than one of these together you are therefore very likely to wake up to 20 or so new additions to your snail family on a fairly regular basis.
Subulina octona (glass snails)
If you keep ANY of these you will almost certainly end up with many in short time! Let me explain......
As an experiment I kept on of these on it's own right from a tiny hatchling. Just a few short weeks later it had grown to be a juvenile with eggs developing inside. I suspect the eggs are fertile....
Update: The eggs have been laid!
I started off with six of these tiny but very fast-growing snails, I now have hundreds in a tank. I thought it odd that I have NEVER seen any of them mate, which prompted me to keep one on it's own to see if it would self-fertilise.
They're very time-consuming to clean out and keep under control, finding the eggs isn't easy, they're tiny and hatch quickly.
I am suspecting that they are all natural clones, yet genetically stable.