When should I expect eggs from these guys?

[racingsnail]

It's been a while since I've been here! But I came back because I caught two of my four snails having at it. Normally, I would celebrate, but I DO NOT want baby snails. So my questions are...

1. They mated at least once, that I noticed, day before yesterday.
2. I am not sure of their exact breed. :/ I know it varies depending on what they are...

So here is a picture:

i1183.photobucket.com/albums/x472/fromthewestmeadows/IMG_1477.jpg

Help? I plan on cleaning their cage out tonight anyways, so any snail eggs laid will probably be destroyed if found. :/ Which is sad, but we just can't handle babies right now. But if there are eggs, when might they be laid? How long will it take to hatch?

... What kind of snail do I even have? I think they are Helix Aspersa?

Thanks for any help. I'm sure this has been asked to death here, but I don't have the energy to go looking. :( Sorry.

[pinkunicorn]

You're right you have a Helix aspersa there. Their eggs are easy to take care of. It's difficult to say when you will see eggs as the snails can store sperm for years before laying! If you see a snail burrow herself very deep suddenly it's likely she is looking for a place for her eggs, so allow her and once she re-emerges you can check for eggs.

Normally you're going to see something like this:


Aspersas like to dig about 10cm deep (or as deep as they can) for their eggs, and usually prefer tank edges or corner for some reason. The eggs are 3-5mm big, white jellyish pearls in a sticky cluster.

Here's the snail who laid that particular cluster. I found her at it and wanted to observe the laying so I picked her up and let her lay the rest of the eggs visible to me. I put the sample eggs into the cluster though, as I am hatching this brood.


It's possible to only allow a few eggs to hatch, if you would like a few baby snails but can't raise the whole bunch. Just carefully remove as many eggs as you don't want and destroy them by crushing as soon as you find them (and soon after they've been laid) and leave 2-5 eggs in their place. Or you can put the wanted eggs in an incubator box that you keep humid and warm. Or just remove all the eggs and destroy them by crushing or freezing if you don't want any babies.

[pinkunicorn]

Oh I just now noticed from the photo that this is the same snail that laid another cluster of eggs a few days earlier! So... you might want to keep an eye on that. Sometimes both of the snails lay and sometimes only one lays, and apparently sometimes one of them lays many batches!

[racingsnail]

Years?! Wow! That is amazing and kinda scary, haha.

If eggs do get laid, how long on average will it take them to hatch? I check the tank daily to check for eggs, but if I miss it, will I have (generally) days or weeks to wait?

Thank you for your reply. :]