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Post by royweeezy on Apr 9, 2017 6:59:26 GMT
Hello everybody. Several months ago I collected a few snails from my property and built a little habitat for them and whatnot. They are Pacific Sideband (aka Monadenia fidelis) and I've been watching them closely since they woke up from hibernating cause I'm interesting to see them breed (love darts) and all of a sudden one has laid eggs. A few questions... 1. Can snails store sperm from last years breeding season and use it to lay more eggs? Or is it possible this one has laid unfertilized eggs? 2. The eggs were clearish white when new.. But they seem to have absorbed the color of the coconut fiber stuff. Almost a light tea color...is this bad? 3. Since laying the eggs.. The snail in question has gained a clearish white lump under his skin. I've read about this several times when it's behind their head near their sex organs.. But this is inside of his head, directly between where his eyestalks come out. It kinda seems to come and go, but when it is there he seems to keep his eyestalks facing away from each other and fully extended..Is this part of the breeding/mating sequence? Has anyone seen it before? He seems to be otherwise normal, still eating and sliming around. Here is lump: imgur.com/zTv3cd1any info would be greatly appreciated  |
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Post by diegothesnailkeeper on Apr 9, 2017 12:45:39 GMT
Hi royweeezy i like your snails by the way heres what i know about the questions you asked:
1. I'm not completely sure about this but from what I know they cant store sperm. They probably had those eggs in them because snails can keep their eggs inside them until the conditions are right for the baby snails to be laid.
2. The eggs are fine they just soaked up some of the humidity from the coconut fiber.
3. The lump on his head is his actual sex organs I'm not sure why they do it but my idea is that they are doing that to show that they're ready to mate and my GALS do it all the time because he's the only one in his habitat hahaha.
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Post by royweeezy on Apr 9, 2017 12:54:38 GMT
Thank you for the replies. It's guess it's just the timing is weird.. I've been watching them and haven't seen them mate. They wouldn't store their eggs throughout their entire hibernation would they? Cause they woke up and I've been watching and then all of a sudden, I came home one day and saw a single egg stuck to him and he had dirt on his shell. So I dug around and found the clutch or whatever.. And now I'm seeing this bulgy part? Why not before..?
i guess I'll do what I do best and keep watching them.
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Post by diegothesnailkeeper on Apr 9, 2017 13:06:01 GMT
How long have they been awake from hibernation? Because its only take a few days for them to mate and lay eggs. Also the bulgy part just means that its either really excited by something or they're ready to mate again.
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Post by royweeezy on Apr 9, 2017 13:10:41 GMT
Oh.. They've been awake for maybe three weeks now. I just wonder why I never saw the lump before the eggs came. And also... If they have mated.. Wouldn't two of them lay eggs? Or does one play mommy and the other is daddy?
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Post by diegothesnailkeeper on Apr 9, 2017 14:18:00 GMT
Oh.. They've been awake for maybe three weeks now. I just wonder why I never saw the lump before the eggs came. And also... If they have mated.. Wouldn't two of them lay eggs? Or does one play mommy and the other is daddy? one plays mommy one plays daddy since snails are hermaphrodites (they have both male and female sex organs). in my experience i rarely see the lump with mine but when i see it he is mostly exploring a lot or eating his favourite food i dont know why they do that |
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Post by royweeezy on Apr 9, 2017 16:38:45 GMT
Yeah I knew they were hermaphrodites. I just didn't know if they both lay eggs after or if just one does. I always thought they both would. I wonder how they choose who does what?
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Post by wolf on Apr 9, 2017 18:47:22 GMT
Hi royweeezy,
sorry for two short annotations:
at least species of the family Achatinidae ("GALS") can store sperm cells successfully for several months.
Your Monadenia fidelis belongs to the family Monadeniidae, formerly Bradybaenidae (a close related family). Bradybaenidae usually have a "head wart". The "head wart" is a gland-like organ just between the optic tentacles, related to sexual maturation. It releases at least one pheromone (plus testosterone), it is under the hormonal control of the hermaphrodite gland and is known to change its size and form sometimes, depending on its activity status. As far as I remember, it was described at first in some Euhadra species (Bradybaenidae), but meanwhile it's known from several other families.
Have a good time : wolf
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Post by royweeezy on Apr 10, 2017 7:03:56 GMT
A few more pics: Just dipping his feet in the pool.. imgur.com/ludv4ObClose up munching of a sweet potato slice.. imgur.com/AsggEncI found this one just last night in the rain, I thought he was kinda small but when I brought him inside he turned out to be the biggest one. imgur.com/cgk14oQimgur.com/OfrF6zUThe one with the white painted shell is the one that laid eggs.. I found him about a month before they went into hibernation last autumn and his shell was cracked in a couple ways. I've seen them with cracks before but this one seemed serious, I could feel the cracks grinding on each other as I handled him. But he seems ok now. Ok enough to lay eggs anyway.. |
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Post by royweeezy on Apr 12, 2017 0:11:47 GMT
Also.. I have small lava rock covering half the bottom of their tank and coconut fiber on the other half but for some reason they avoid the coconut fiber like the plague. Sometimes they even borrow into the lava rock somehow. Like this: imgur.com/9S1I8AtAnother thing I thought was kinda neat.. My tank lid has a section that's kinda like a crisscross wire part.. There's very little material for them to "grab" onto. But somehow they do it.. I was nervous for one the first time I saw it happen. imgur.com/Coj4A51Thanks for looking.. |
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Post by Liguus on Apr 12, 2017 4:01:33 GMT
Oh.. They've been awake for maybe three weeks now. I just wonder why I never saw the lump before the eggs came. And also... If they have mated.. Wouldn't two of them lay eggs? Or does one play mommy and the other is daddy? one plays mommy one plays daddy since snails are hermaphrodites (they have both male and female sex organs). in my experience i rarely see the lump with mine but when i see it he is mostly exploring a lot or eating his favourite food i dont know why they do that This is incorrect. They are hermaphrodites, but both the male and female organs on both snails are used during mating. They trade sperm and will both get fertilized. They likely will not lay eggs at the exact same time, but close together. And after one lays it's eggs you should expect to see the other's clutch in the coming days. Lots of mating can occur in three weeks. It usually will take place later at night and is not always seen unless someone is awake long enough every night and checking on them. Congrats on finding them. M. fidelis is a very nice species. |
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Post by royweeezy on Apr 12, 2017 22:07:20 GMT
You are correct HelixPomatia, a second one just laid eggs last night. I feel like they are so deep.. Can they be too deep? I imagine the stuff on top of them should be not too compacted or thick, right?
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Post by Liguus on Apr 13, 2017 3:44:07 GMT
It should be fine, snails prefer to have deep soil for eggs, otherwise they tend not to lay eggs very often. The coconut substrate is pretty light so it shouldn't get too compacted at all.
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