Nylon string like thing sticking out of snail?!

[saturnfly]

I was just misting the snails this morning and I noticed Boris has a long stringy thing sticking out of him that looks remarkably like nylon string.




What on earth is that? D: and should I be worried?
It definitely isn't nylon string since there is none anywhere near or in the tank or even in my room.

[tsrebel]

It seems to end/start at his sexual organ, is that right? I think I've seen the same thing once after my snails mated, but it's a long time ago an my memory isn't the best. I don't think it's anything to worry about, but I really don't know.

[saturnfly]

I have no idea where the sexual organs start, lol, but whatever it is has either been retracted or come off since I can't see it anymore. *whew*
The only thing I can think of is that maybe it was a love dart? But I've never had experience with mating snails before, so idk. xD

[morningcoffee]

Have seen this before on snail forums a couple of times - it seems to be something like a shot of sperm that has missed its target! Very strange, but not harmful or anything to worry about

[SnailsPace]

A few of my Isabella's had this and like Morningcoffe says, it's a spermy string I was told

[saki114]

Interesting if my snails had that and I didnt read this, I would be a terrified over protective wreck lol

[mothear]

I'm glad I found this post 'cause I just spotted the same thing on one of my snails. Does it mean they mated successfully, or that they failed to mate? I'm not sure I want to be a snail grandmother!

[vallery]

That is really interesting. Did you touch it? If so did the snail react. And the photography is great. I need to get a new camera. I hope you'll keep us posted as to how it goes, if it goes away.

[ness]

Yes MorningCoffee is right, I've seen my isabellas mis-shoot when mating, and this is what comes out - quite suddenly too! Nothing to worry about at all. You can remove it, or it will eventually disintegrate on its own. It means the sperm missed the target, so I would say one or both of them failed to mate properly.
I agree that's fine photography!

[mechangel]

I've seen this a couple times on snails that had just mated this week, they didn't care if I broke it off or left it. I looked here to confirm it was some sort of snail sperm or something and not part of their genitals!

[jembolina]

2 of my snails mated last night, only for a few hours I think, and afterwards were connected by a string like this that was about 20-30cm long with one end in each one's genitals.
I've seen the same kind of string twice before so maybe they haven't quite gotten the hang of mating properly yet

[pinkunicorn]

This is a weird thing that I've seen sometimes after mating but not every time. Apparently it's normal.

And now I see the missed sperm thing... that makes me wonder how do they miss if they're, you know, "connected"? I've always seen this after what looked like a successful mating.