My only female snail finally laid her first clutch (at least her first in my tank). My question now is what do I do? I really want to hatch the eggs, theres a good lfs nearby that will take the babies as long as I can tell them what kind of snails they are (I need help with that to, see my "new snails..." thread) The eggs are green, really cool looking really.

I just want to know what I need to do. How long until they should hatch and what do I feed them when they do hatch and how should I care for them. I know, lots of questions, I'm pretty excited now. Please, tell me anything and everything you might know about raising baby snails

The eggs should be kept out of the water in a warm, moist environment. They should never be sitting in water, but should be a bit damp. If it's not overly humid above the waterline, you could consider running a wet finger gently over the eggs once or twice a day, or misting them from a spray bottle. If your tank water is warm, then you can keep them where they are, or you can remove them using a credit card and float them on styrofoam or put them in a hairnet. There are many different ways people have gone about this, so you might want to poke around the forum. The eggs need to be in a place where when the babies hatch, they either fall or have a short climb into the water.

Raising baby snails is a lot like keeping their parents. There's really not much you do differently. They don't require a different diet - just feed them all veggies, like you (hopefully) have been doing, keep water params steady, warm, hard water, calcium, etc.

If it is her first clutch, there are chances that it could be infertile, just a "practice run". If you see dark spots developing, or the eggs become darker, there's babies inside. The amount of time in which they will hatch depends on the temperature and humidity. I don't know the exact amount of time, never having green eggs myself.

Phew, that was a lot, sorry. Good luck!

Okay. Its pretty warm and humid where they are so I can leave them where they are? That would be great. I'll get a spray bottle to mist them tomorrow but for now I'll just wipe them with a wet finger.

The parents have mostly been eating kale and carrots with the occasional algea wafer if they get to it before the goldies. They also get the odd grape whenever I have them around. They have a 24 hour buffet of Kale, and carrots are in there about 95% of the time ( I put new in and take the old out at least every other day so they don't rot) I also put a few drops of Kents calcium in the water every day. Should I increase the calcium levels or anything, or should I do things just as I've been doing?

Is there a limit as to how deep the babies should be allowed to go? I mean, would the pressure of deeper water hurt them any or should I just leave them on their own.

My goldies are small, under 2 inches and they completely ignore my adult snails so I'm hoping they'll leave the babies alone.

About when would I see the dark spots developing? I'm not expecting a precise answer, just a general one.

Thanks airwen

Well, the clutch fell of the glass after I wetted them this morning . Luckely I didn't have an early class this morning and I was around to notice within a half hour and get them out. So now I need a backup plan at least for this morning and afternoon. I can get to the store tonight and get whatever I might need. I don't have any styrofoam at the moment, all I've got is a little plastic dish with a lid that my Betta came in.

Would it be okay if I put a damp paper towel in the bottom and layed the clutch on top? Since the eggs were just layed this weekend I'm sure they're not going to hatch any time soon so I don't have to worry about that quite yet.

I've hatched many a clutch,using a margarine bowl-a paper towel made slightly moist from tank water & then sitting the clutch on them and poking a few holes in the lid for air. I use to sit them on top of my tank lights to keep them warm.You just have to check it daily as condensation sometimes can build up too much.The eggs need to be slightly moist not damp,I've also done it by floating it on styrofoam too.Although I had very good luck doing it both ways,I had more hatching out of the container.They can take anywhere from 7 days to a couple of weeks to hatch-depending on moistness & temp.Mine were always warm and hatched really fast.Good luck!

Okay, so the container and the paper towel will be okay. Thats good becasue I'm short on $ right now and can't really afford to spend money right now. So I'll poke a couple holes in the lid if this container and set it somewhere warm. I think it'll go right next to my laptop because its consistantly warm there. I can't wait for babies!! I think I'll hunt down a piece of styrofoam though for when they get close to hatching, so they can get to some water.

I've got two tanks set up, a 29 gal with two goldies and three haustrums and a 10 gal with a betta. Which tank do you think would be safer for them to start their lives in?

The goldies will definately eat the babies they spot,so they have a better chance with the bigger snails.Of course you gotta watch out with that Betta.Some tolerate the babies and leave them alone,and some bite off their antenna's(Which do grow back by the way but OUCH!!!!

hmm, this presents a dilema. Would the babies be okay in a net breeder in my 29 gallon if I put something over the top of it so they couldn't get out? I can easily get one of those.

I've used Breeder nets before,and they seem to have worked,so you can try that.What's going on with the eggs now?How many days has it been?

I've got a breeder net on order form petsmart.com, it was shipped tuesday so I should get it soon . The eggs have gotten slightly lighter in color, some of them look to have a tiny little dark spot in the middle but that just might be wishful thinking on my part . Its been almost a week. I'm not sure exactly what day they were layed, sometime between last friday afternoon and sunday evening. I was away so I'm not sure exactly when.

maybe you can post a pic and then maybe that would help!

Thanks!

I'm starting to wonder if the eggs are duds. From what Ive read over on applesnail.net I should be seeing little specks in the eggs (developing babies), but the eggs look pretty much the same as they did. I've decided that the specks I thought I saw were just figments of my imagination as I can't see them anymore. I'm not giving up on them though, I've read from a couple people that they couldn't tell whether the eggs were fertile or not until they started hatching

The marisa eggs that I have are doing great, I can see the babies developing nicely. I've got all the eggs in a net breeder right now but once the marisas hatch there'll be some rearranging of eggs. Not sure what I'm going to do then but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it .

My haustrums went at it again this weekend and now my girl is hunting for a spot to lay more eggs.

It kind of sucks that all this is going on right before spring break. I guess I'll just have to pack up the babies and or eggs and take them home with me. I might have to do that with my fish to, I'm trying to come up with ideas of what to do with them.

Don't you realize by now that nothing ever happens at a convenient time?
When I first started,I had a real hard time telling if they were duds too.I actually didn't know until I saw them crawling out. It takes time,but you'll get the hang of it.
I still can't believe that with all the egg clutches that I get in the big Rubbermaid,that the Marissa's have kept me from babies.Oh,but I did find one small baby today, a striped Marissa of course -other than that,no babies ever make it past them.I have 3 Cana Clutches,and 6 Brig Clutches in that tub right now.

Wow! Thats a lot of clutches. How many snails do you have? I just hope that I'm not over run by snails. Theres is an lfs nearby though that will take any apple snail babies though, which is good. This is GREAT lfs to, they take the best care of their fish, they even feed hikari instead of cheap flakes like most places. They're a bit higher priced but at least that will help ensure that any of my babies that might end up there will go to good homes. Its so exciting, anything new is exciting to me though

I have three different tanks of snails,so truthfully,I have no idea anymore exactly how many.The one ten gal. has 5 clutches in it,and the 30 gal.just had 2 clutches hatch.I changed out water in the 30 today,and there's everyone up laying eggs again. . Alot of my Snails were full grown when I got them,so I've lost quite a few in the last 6 months,and yet,I still have alot,and truthfully,there are alot of egg clutches that I don't allow to hatch.

I woke up this morning to my girl laying another clutch . Unfortunatly my camera batteries died the moment I pressed the button to take a picture Oh well, I'm letting the eggs harden now and I'll prolly take them off the glass when I get back from work tomorrow morning