Gastropod reproductive behavior

[coyote]

Here's an article with everything you ever wanted to know about gastropod reproductive behavior.

www.scholarpedia.org/article/Gastropod_reproductive_behavior

[wolf]

Hi, coyote!
Many thanks for that great article. We should collect such links.
Regards: wolf

[coyote]

I am always on the lookout for snail-related articles that might be of interest here.

[fritz]

this is my very first forum. I have a Helix Aspersa which came in on a shipment at work. I've had it in my home for 5+ months and i'm sure its trying to produce babies. I don't want babies because i think there can be 100. It was up in a corner for 4 weeks in its tank and i decided to pick it off and see what's happening. there were pin head size dots - am i to presume its babies? since then it did not eat anything, when i put it on a piece of lettuce it oozed out this clear liquid and went back to the corner where its been for 2.5 weeks. how big are their eggs when they come out and how many do they have.

what should i do because i'm afraid maybe the babies will be all over my house one day.

can you answer these questions? i don't know how to get my question to helix aspersa people , not sure what a gastropod even is. sorry for being so new.

[coyote]

Hi fritz, welcome to the forum. I keep aspersas. You are right, an aspersa can lay up to 100 eggs (although not all will hatch, and of those that do, not all will grow into adulthood).

It sounds like you have only one snail (a gastropod is a slug or snail). It is possible the eggs it lays will not be fertile and will not hatch at all if they were self-fertilized (snails can do that). But it is also possible it has been storing eggs inside itself since before you got it, waiting until conditions were right to lay (snails can do that too).

But it also sounds like your snail was not laying eggs, because it was not buried in the substrate for a day or two. Snail eggs look like a little ball or clump of white BBs and they must be kept moist or they will not hatch, which is why the snail digs a small nest in the soil to lay them.

If your snail was up in the corner of its tank for a few weeks, it sounds to me more like it was estivating for the summer. That is something that my snails do too. When it gets warmer, snails enter into a state of suspended animation for several weeks, waiting it out until it cools off a bit to become active again.

The pinhead size dots you described do not sound like babies at all, but I am at a loss as to say what they might be. Can you still see these dots, and can you get a picture of them to post here? That might help us figure out what it is you saw.

Snails can ooze liquid for a number of reasons; illness is one, as a deterrent to predators is another. It is possible your snail felt irritated from being awaken from estivation, thinking a bird or raccoon was trying to eat it. It is also possible your snail might be ill, since we don't really know what those dots are. But from what you've posted so far, your snail sounds normal to me.

Please feel free to ask any further questions you might have -- that's the purpose of this forum! And please let us know how your snail is doing.

By the way, if you do ever find any eggs and do not want them to hatch, remove them from the tank and put them into the freezer for a couple of days. Then you can discard them.

[fritz]

How large is an egg? how long after an egg is seen will it hatch?
I'm afraid the eggs will be very small and i won't know how many i have many.
I know absolutely nothing about snails as i said it came over on a shipment to my work and the warehouse guys just wanted to let it go. I did not think this was a good idea for many reasons so i decided to take it home and be its mother.

[crossless]

Eggs need same conditions as snails itself some people use snail terrarium as incubator and don't touch that part of soil where eggs are so they can develop in peace and baby snails after hatching will climb to surface when they hatch and starts to find some food and calsium for themselves.

Snails are really easy to keep just need to make sure snails have food, calsium, soil or other substrate is moist all the time, spray terrarium 1 to 3times a day. Then just remove old food when it get bad and pick up some old food from top of the soil too. Some poop can be picked up too, so terrarium stays cleaner longer and don't need to change substrate as often. Substrate is usually change about after one month or depending how much you have it, if used towel as substrate it needs to be changed always when it get smelly.

[coyote]

Aspersa eggs are about 4mm in diameter. Here are some images of aspersa eggs and hatchlings:
www.arkive.org/garden-snail/helix-aspersa/image-A7938.html

Eggs can take 2 to 3 weeks to hatch. After hatching, the babies spend a few days under the soil, emerging on the surface eventually.

If you think your snail may have laid eggs, the best thing to do it to gently probe through the soil looking for a clump of them. Snails bury themselves in the soil for a couple of days while laying, so if you see your snail above the substrate every day, it is doubtful it has had enough time to lay a clutch of eggs. It will do no harm to check through the substrate anyway, though.

If you eat eggs, you should save the eggshells. They should be washed and crushed as finely as possible to make sure your snail keeps its shell healthy with a good source of calcium. Otherwise you could get a cuttlebone from the pet supply store (in the bird supply section), rinse it off and put it in with your snail.

[lee2211]

I wash out my eggshells, and them put them in the oven. Makes them more brittle and easier to crush see.

[coyote]

That's a good trick to know, thanks!

[crossless]

I don't give my snails egg crush any more. I made powder of it will pepper corn mill (so fine that if you blow it puff) and still it came out all in poop nothing was digested at all.

[Hannah-Bird]

My only loner snail, the Pacific sideband (aka the big red snail), has laid eggs three times in the ten month span that I've had it. There aren't any other snails of the same kind in the tank. The eggs were viable and the babies are doing very well. Has anyone else had a snail reproduce asexually? Does anyone know if there are some species for which this is typical? I appreciate any answers on the matter, as I'm very curious. Thanks!

[vaplis]

Hi there,

I have Achatina reticulata, he layed eggs second time, despite the fact that last he saw his brothers was ages ago when they all were little kids. I have red about self fertilizing, but there were more proves about holding sperm for a long time, which is not the case now. So it seems i have self-banging bastard here! Have you any more rumours about such things?

[gunshotglitter]

May 25, 2012 6:26:49 GMT vaplis said:

Hi there,

I have Achatina reticulata, he layed eggs second time, despite the fact that last he saw his brothers was ages ago when they all were little kids. I have red about self fertilizing, but there were more proves about holding sperm for a long time, which is not the case now. So it seems i have self-banging bastard here! Have you any more rumours about such things?

As far as I know, Achatinas can self-fertilize when the population density is low. It's rare because it is not their most preferred method of reproduction, but if your Achatina has been alone for a long period of time, there is a chance it would go for this option.

[MelanieChaos]

I caught two of my snails 'in the act' last night! This was a first for me

[MelanieChaos]

Mar 31, 2012 7:01:20 GMT Hannah-Bird said:

My only loner snail, the Pacific sideband (aka the big red snail), has laid eggs three times in the ten month span that I've had it. There aren't any other snails of the same kind in the tank. The eggs were viable and the babies are doing very well. Has anyone else had a snail reproduce asexually? Does anyone know if there are some species for which this is typical? I appreciate any answers on the matter, as I'm very curious. Thanks!

Snails can reproduce with other snail species. My first snail laid eggs when he was alone as well! He may have mated before I acquired him, though. But I know snails can reproduce asexually if the population around them is low/non-existant. 

[wolf]

Hi MelanieChaos,
thanks for your input.
You have written: "Snails can reproduce with other snail species." Well, some species can interbreed with other snail species, many others not (depending on genetic similarities). So, species-hybrids are the exception, not the rule.......... .
Then you wrote: "But I know snails can reproduce asexually if the population around them is low/non-existant." There are very few snail species which can do parthenogenesis (f.e. Melanoides tuberculata). Some snail species can do self-fertilization, but that's not an asexual reproduction, but a special form of sexual reproduction (egg and sperm cell coming from the same individual). But you are right: if ever crossfertilization is possible, it is preferred.
Have a nice time, kind regards : wolf

[orotic2001]

My question is what happens to the snail after it lays a brood of eggs. I had a pair mate a month ago and I found one dead when I came back from a two week trip. I found another actually laying eggs this week, and now it is acting lethargic and retracted in its snail. Do snails usually die after mating and laying eggs?

[Liguus]

Snails can lay eggs many times with no issues. If they are dying after laying eggs they are either unhealthy or old.