Argh... my snails are driving my craaaaazy. I've lost count, but so far they've laid me something like 17 or 18 infertile clutches. I kept five of them floating on styrofoam for 2 weeks, warm and moist, and they never changed at all- so I did the toothpick-fertility-test and they were nothing but smelly goop. :crp

I have 3 laying females too... my chestnut, olive, and my sneaky star jade who has never let me see her lay a clutch but I've seen her out of the water enough times to know that she's laid at least 1.

I have a few larger clutches in this round, they're all a week old, and the test showed them to be infertile too, but I figured I'd keep them a bit longer and see anyways. *sigh* So now I've got 4 dud clutches sitting around on styrofoam, 1 obviously dud on the tank, and a new one from my chestnut that was laid last night. My chestnut girl is my favorite so I'm hoping they're fertile... like this one will be any different than the other clutches. Of course, she laid it right under the filter outflow-y thing. I hate it when they do that!

Oh well. You probably don't care about my rants.. so I got pictures!


My dud clutches on the styrofoam.


Albino cory, Fred's head, and 2 golds, my old beat up store rescue, and a DSP.


My chestnut girl checking out the real estate with my olive and her jade suitor. This is the most accurate picture of Hazel (chestnut's) color.


Chestnut and olive, who has managed to shake off her suitor. My chestnut looks really yellow, but it's just the flash. See above picture for accurate coloring.


Fred the bala shark, a danio, a gold teenager-snail, and my olive girl.


The most likely dad of chestnut's newest clutch, my LSP.. who isn't quite an LSP as he has yellow AND purple base, as you can see, with purple stripes. But LSP is the closest I could come.

Enjoy.

Dud clucthes can be so frustrating. You get your hopes up and then......nothing

I love your photos. Your snails are pretty

I had one of those silver sharks you have. I gave him to a friend who has a 50 gallon tropical tank, and he says that my basa shark has grown huge. He also mentioned that the shark ate a couple of his apple snails.

Have you had any problems keeping your shark and snails together?

How do you get the clutches on the styrofoam so nicely?

I took an old credit card and slid it under the clutch, then just put the clutch on the styrofoam. Pretty simple..

My shark is like... 2 1/2 inches or so now. He doesn't touch the snails at all. He's probably going to get really big later, but that'll just be an excuse to get a bigger tank .

aww... that sucks that there not fertile, i hope they are....
Your snails are so pretty, thanks for posting pictures

Meep!

One of the above clutches is fertile. About 2/3 of the eggs started getting grayish inside a few days ago. The others which were laid about the same time are still pink as.. umm.. something pink. I am so creative.

I collected 3 more off the tank side, but it's too soon to tell whether or not they are fertile. *crosses fingers*

Oh thats great , lets hope the rest of them are fertile.
Good luck.

I was going to say,that alot depends on Humidity/temps.etc. They say that it can hatch anywhere forom two weeks and on. My brigs were young when I got them.I noticed the one hatch looked like 50 % the rest were as you said,"Smelly goop".Going by the color of your eggs led me to believe that they weren't ready yet.When my clutch started hatching,the eggs were all a grey/white color.It just looks like you need to have patience!!!! Congrats,and just leave the other clutches there for a while,

Well, if nothing else they have been very busy,lol!

Love the pics!

So whats this toothpick test? :listen:

Basically.. you take a toothpick, poke the clutches through to the middle, and if bad-smelling goo comes out, they're infertile. If little dots come out in some goo, then they're fertile. Or something like that. I thought the one that is fertile was infertile.. but now I guess it is yay!

I guess this means I should set up my baby snail hatchery in a big old rubbermaid tub (heck, I have it and I am NOT buying another tank). I have a roughly 15-gallon one and a 30.. I'll use the 15. I'll have to let water sit in it for a while though. I dunno where I'll put it.. I don't have any more room in my room, but then again everything goes in the playroom so I might just set it up in a corner.

They hatched today! Which is incredible, as they just started showing signs of being fertile 2 days ago. *vows never to throw away another clutch*. They're soooo cute! I looked at them with a magnifying glass and am now trying to set up a microscope. Yes.. they are small. They've got the most darling little tentacles.