Infected eggs?

[shaydeesnail]

Not too long ago I made a post asking if anyone knew why my albopicta's eggs were turning red. It made sense that they were just breaking down because they were infertile and had been in a damp tank for over a month.

But yesterday I found that my snails had laid some bright yellow clutches (the eggs have always been a creamy white before) and today they have red and even blue splotches on them. Could the snails have a problem that is causing the eggs to be infected with bacteria before they are even laid? These eggs are only a couple of days old and the tank is definitely not too humid.

I'll post a picture as soon as I can.

[muddydragon]

bright yellow eggs are normal they can come in anything from white to yellow. (obviously red and blue is not) Do you know how long they could have been there before you found them?

[shaydeesnail]

Just a few days as I checked again when I noticed that my pregnant snail no longer had eggs in it, I wonder what causes the colour difference? I just hope that my snail doesn't have an infection that is being passed to the eggs. I'm freezing them all at the moment just in case.

[muddydragon]

i imagine it's like the different colour patterns in the shells i guess.

I doubt that they could be pre-infected eggs, there's a lot of mechanisms to stop such things. They could perhaps be infertile causing them to become infected quicker.

[malacophile]

In the process of trying to find information about land snail fungal infections for Shortie's ill Tuffnut, I came across this:

www.slideshare.net/johannestim/snail-farming

If you hit ctrl+F and enter Fusarium, it'll take you to the important part. Apparently this fungus infects eggs, halts development and makes them turn red!

[shaydeesnail]

That's very interesting! Thanks a lot for that link, I'm quite sure that was the problem now. The soil I put the eggs in held moisture a lot better than coir and went a bit muddy, I couldnt get it to dry out and I think the wet, warm environment must have caused it. I wonder if it's the type of fungus that hangs around naturally and is normally harmless unless it overgrows and causes infection? If not, I'm not sure how it got there! But thank you for the information! Very helpful

[malacophile]

You're welcome. It was probably already there, or the spores got there from the air. That's usually the case with fungi, and a lot of bacteria, too. They're naturally present, but they're harmless until the right conditions for their proliferation occur.