Eggs have hatched... now what??

[hefty0]

About 20 of my eggs have now hatched... but now what do I do with them?? At the moment they are currently on a piece of wet kitchen roll with a piece of lettuce? What does everyone do with their eggs once they have hatched??

Thaankd

[fluffy]

What kind of snails are we talking about?

[pleurdonteisabella]

I have fulica, retics, tigers, marginata and snails like that on coir, Isabella, marginella i have on moss but try to avoid touching them i have a spoon that is kept for the snails and i use that to move babies but remember they are soft shelled and you havr to be very gentle. I don't feed babies for 2-3 days all they have is cuttle. I was told to do it this way by a very good breeder.
Hope this helps

[copigeon]

Why would you withhold food after hatching?
In my own experience - thats not a practice I would recommend.

Its true that when snails initially emerge they will consume the shell (varies from species to species but as a general rule). Once the shell is consumed they will venture upward, toward the surface in search of food. This process can take anything from hours to days, and the rate of emergence varies species to species. Sometimes there can be a week between hatching of the first to the last within a clutch. With soft shelled small species they can emerge the day of hatch.
Because of this varience withholding food can only act to make hatchlings have to wait for vital sustinence.

I can understand the concept - force the snail to consume a higher calcium content to assure good shell formation. But thats exactly what the waste shell provides, a snail can only process so much calcium without a vitamin balance anyway so the concept is flawed.

I wouldnt recommend "withholding" food, just place a small peice of long lasting lettuce like romaine on the surface of the substrate above the ova and change it periodically as it becomes wilted. Sweet potato works well as it keeps for a long time before fouling.