How can I tell if my snails are girls or boys...I don't want them to start mating and having babies...I only want my 2...or can they mate whatever they are?? Yikes!

Well, I tried searching for a old thread that I thought had some Info on sexing a snail, I do know from someone on here telling me that I have a Male in my tank, Gary, I saw his "penis" I will keep searching and see what I can find, I too was worried to death about Babie's!!!





Okie- I found this on sexing snails.

http://www.tronchaser.com/~cindi/ss.html

I have heard rumors of snails that were postively male or female actually changing gender. Supposedly they do it when there is an imbalance in their habitat and it is a survival mechinism. If you have apple snails they will lay eggs above the surface of the water where you can simply take a paper towel and get them off the glass. I just throw mine away when I do not want to hatch them.

Make sure that any tank you have apple snails in is not filled up all the way to the top! They need air space to breathe and lay their eggs. A general rule is the space should be as much as the length of your longes snail.

LOL! You were probably seeing their air tube thing they put out.

yeah, the siphon looks kinda... well... yeah, you get what I mean. Those pics in the link that Dells posted are really good and should give you decent practice in identification of males and females so that you can do it in your own tank. If you are not sure, just wait and see if they breed. The male always crawls onto the female's shell and he is normally smaller.

No, This really was his Penis. I looked it up after wondering about that myself, Gary is most definatly a boy! That link show's clearly what to look for as well.

The male always crawls onto the female's shell and he is normally smaller. [/quote]



Hmm, Gary is my biggest snail in my tank. I am almost certain that he is male. I have never seen him on another snail though. Odd.

You did better than me my first time Dells! My Gary turned out to be a Gayle!

Well, I don't know if I have done so well Michelle?! Because when you said that most the male is smaller it made me think that maybe "Gary" is really a girl as well...I could of sworn that I noted that it was indeed a penis and not the syphon tube.

how can you get the snal to come out of his shell like that. one time i sat there for 10 minutes and he never came out. is there anything i can do to get them to expose themselves?

You just have to be patient. Sometimes you can run across 'shy'snailies, but they will come out eventually. Maybe not the first time you pick them up, but they will come out for you.

thanks. both of my snails are fairly new(had the oldest one for a little over a month) so i guess they are still adjusting

I find waiting until feeding time and having the light's out make's them a bit more active.

wait. so apple snails can come out of the water? with out dying i mean.

Yes, but it is recommended that you seal your tank off so that they cannot get out. They can hold moisture in their shells, but eventually they will dry out and perish. Females have been known to travel for miles in search of a place to lay their eggs.