Do snails eat their babies? Yes, first, they’ll eat the shells of the hatched eggs.

Snails will mate for 1-6 hours at a time. During mating, the male mystery snail will crawl along the back of the female until they position themselves over the right shoulder of the other snail. Once there, they “do the deed.” Some females will continue on in their daily activities, eating and scooting around.

Different snails reproduce differently, but most snails are “hermaphrodites.” Being a hermaphrodite means that any given snail can be both male and female at the same time. Some hermaphrodite snails do not need another snail to reproduce, but can make more snails all by themselves (this is called asexual reproduction).

Most aquarium snails reproduce by laying eggs. In general, aquarium snails lay clusters of jellylike eggs. Different species position their eggs in different places in the aquarium. For example, pond snails from the genera Physa and Physella usually lay their eggs above the waterline to avoid predation by fish.

If you have snails in your tank, you put them in there. The most common means is through adding live plants. Snails, or their eggs, can hitch hike on most types of plants and arrive in our home aquarium. Outbreaks generally occur due to over feeding.

From breeding to adulthood. Under favorable conditions, eggs hatch after approximately two weeks to 1 month and snails emerge with a soft shell. Therefore, they need to feed themselves to get calcium, and the first source to get it is by consuming the remains of their egg and even other eggs that have not yet hatched.

Even without a mate present, the female can store fertile sperm for up to 140 days, in which period she deploys batches of fertilized eggs. Moreover, Mystery snails may lay unfertilized eggs too. A single specimen will lay one clutch of eggs per 7 to 10 days.

Once apple snails reach sexual maturity, they will begin to mate on their own, and don’t require any special triggers. They will attach themselves to each other during mating, with the female always being on the bottom on the male.

If your mystery snails lay a pile of eggs, you have a few options. Leave them as they are, and they’ll hatch in 2-4 weeks if they’re fertile. If you don’t want a huge snail population in your aquarium, you can either discard the clutch or transfer it to another tank to hatch there.

They are not all the same. Most mystery snails are apple snails but not all apple snails are mystery snails. It was started back when someone bought new snails and did not know what species they were so they were named “mystery” snails but that is NOT a species name. All of those snails have actual species names.

The apple snail is an invasive aquatic snail from South America. In addition to causing agricultural and ecological damage, these snails also threaten human health. If eaten raw, they can transmit a deadly parasite called rat lung worm to humans and other mammals.

Why is it a problem? Chinese mystery snails can clog water-intake pipes. They may also transmit diseases and parasites to fish and other wildlife. They compete with native snails for food and adversely affect aquatic food webs.

While Mystery Snails can do a good job helping keep the tank clean, they also add to the bio-load of the tank like other living organisms. In that way, a Mystery Snail is just like any other tank inhabitant. They feed from the tank and they produce waste into it.

How Many Mystery Snail Per Gallon? You can keep 1 or 2 snails for every 5 gallons. This gives them enough space to move and eat as they please.