# Uhm guys... What the heck is this? Help!



## Gizmothefreaky (Apr 10, 2011)

Yeah, i am not sure if this is in the right section or not (please move it if it isnt)... Or if you guys even know what it is, but... Help?

I went to check on my Twitch today, and i keep the light off mostly on his tank, just so that it is calmer, so i dont really see what is going on in there... Well when i went to feed him i noticed this on the OUTSIDE of the tank:
sorry it is sideways... lol









And i was like...  wtf is that thing?! so i poked it, and it was crunchy on the outside... After the yuck factor went away i realized there was snail goop on my tank stand, and i freaked out... Gary was missing!!! O.O I searched all over and found him sucked into his shell behind the tank, omg i thought he was dead! But i poked his little armor plate and he sucked in more and blew some bubbles at me, yay! So i put him in a cup with tank water and went back to inspecting this.... thing... on the tank wall... I looked at it from the inside....:










And it looks a little like an egg sack... Could i have a bunch of little Garrys running around soon, or are they duds because they were out of the water? I didnt even know mystery snails could reproduce without another of the species around... 

(( lol!! Just saw that Skylight photobombed this picture. XDD))









I scraped it off the tank, and it is slimy and disgusting on the inside btw, :vomit: and dropped it into another cup with water... I am so confused on what to do here guys... 











Does anyone know much about mystery snails?


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## bettafreak33 (Jan 30, 2011)

I have no clue,and I am curious to find out too.I hope someone helps you out with this.


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## dragonflie (Aug 5, 2011)

Looks like a clutch of snail eggs to me. Mystery snails lay their eggs above the water line. You will want to keep the eggs in a moist, but not wet place as the "babies" will drown.

So you will want to take it carefully out of the water you have it in; and if possible...put it back on the wall somewhere close to the water but not in it?


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## Gizmothefreaky (Apr 10, 2011)

I am at a serious loss here. XD I have never seen anything like it, and it doesnt look like the normal egg sacks from snails that i have seen... I am breeding some ramshorns right now so that i can put them in the betta barracks to cut down on algea, and they have little clear sacks with yellowish eggs... So confused!


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## dragonflie (Aug 5, 2011)

The egg sacs will look different depending on species. The picture you posted looks like mystery snail eggs.

http://www.applesnail.net/content/care.php

There are pictures on that site of egg sacs that get laid above the water line, as you have experienced. If you want baby snails you really need to get the sac out of the water asap.


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## Gizmothefreaky (Apr 10, 2011)

dragonflie said:


> Looks like a clutch of snail eggs to me. Mystery snails lay their eggs above the water line. You will want to keep the eggs in a moist, but not wet place as the "babies" will drown.
> 
> So you will want to take it carefully out of the water you have it in; and if possible...put it back on the wall somewhere close to the water but not in it?



Oh no!! *rushes off to do that*

Okay, so it wouldnt stick back on the tank wall, but i dumped most of the water out of the cup, left a little moat around the bottom and laid the clutch on the raised part out of the water... I hope i didnt kill them!! They had only been in the water for 10-15 minutes... 


BTW! Gary is fine, i pulled him out of the QT cup and put him back into the tank because he was crawling around normally.... Should i change his name now...? o.o



dragonflie said:


> The egg sacs will look different depending on species. The picture you posted looks like mystery snail eggs.
> 
> http://www.applesnail.net/content/care.php
> 
> There are pictures on that site of egg sacs that get laid above the water line, as you have experienced. If you want baby snails you really need to get the sac out of the water asap.


But what i dont understand is... I only have the one snail...  And i have had it since it was really small...


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## iloveengl (Sep 1, 2011)

While they do require a male and a female to make baby snails, the female could have been fertilized at the store and stored the clutch. Gary is a girl. 

They always lay above the water line, because, as above posters have mentioned, the eggs must be moist and warm, but not submerged or the baby snails will drown. It may be too late for them since going into the cup. :-? Keep the top covered so that it hold in the moisture and keep floating the cup in the tank, so it stays warm. It may be too late, but fingers crossed. If it starts to smell bad, then you'll know. 

If she lays another clutch (and you want babies) then just leave the egg sack attached to the rim/lid/wherever she lays them, and they will hatch in 2-4 weeks, depending on conditions. The babies will cruise down to the water. Mine were always eaten by the fish before they matured. If you don't want babies, just pluck off the clutch and throw it away or on the compost pile. Another way to prevent babies, it to keep the water line quite high. That way she won't have a dry spot to lay the sack. That said, they can be pretty determined. I would find egg sacks hanging from the lid or light, above the water line, no matter what I did. :roll:


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## Gizmothefreaky (Apr 10, 2011)

iloveengl said:


> While they do require a male and a female to make baby snails, the female could have been fertilized at the store and stored the clutch. Gary is a girl.
> 
> They always lay above the water line, because, as above posters have mentioned, the eggs must be moist and warm, but not submerged or the baby snails will drown. It may be too late for them since going into the cup. :-/ Keep the top covered so that it hold in the moisture and keep floating the cup in the tank, so it stays warm. It may be too late, but fingers crossed. If it starts to smell bad, then you'll know.
> 
> If she lays another clutch (and you want babies) then just leave the egg sack attached to the rim/lid/wherever she lays them, and they will hatch in 2-4 weeks, depending on conditions. The babies will cruise down to the water. Mine were always eaten by the fish before they matured. If you don't want babies, just pluck off the clutch and throw it away or on the compost pile.



Aww, poor Gary!! XD How long can they store the clutch for? I have had HER (i guess lol) for over a month... More than that actually, since she was less than half the size she is now. Do they lay unfertilized eggs like chickens?

I hope that i got the eggs out of the water fast enough! They were only in for a few minutes, but they were floating, so... i dunno. ;-;

She laid them on the OUTSIDE of the tank though, so i would have had to move them anyway... There is no way the babies would have found their way back into the tank, heck, she didnt even make it back into the tank, i had to save her.


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## iloveengl (Sep 1, 2011)

Yeah, I just caught that she laid them on the outside. *Sigh* New moms....

They honestly may not be viable in the first place, since they may have dried out before you got to them. 

They're known to store sperm for months. First time I ever saw the eggs, it completely freaked me out, because - like you - I wasn't expecting to see any. Mystery snails are kind of like live bearers in that way. 

I may be wrong on this point, but I believe there will be no more egg clutches unless you happen across and bring home a male. 

(I have heard that mystery snails can change sexes if there is a shortage of one sex in the area. Not sure if that's true. So you might bring home a lady snail and she may become a he in order to copulate with Gary. )


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## Gizmothefreaky (Apr 10, 2011)

iloveengl said:


> Yeah, I just caught that she laid them on the outside. *Sigh* New moms....
> 
> They honestly may not be viable in the first place, since they may have dried out before you got to them.
> 
> ...



Lol! Yeah... Silly girl... XD

They were only there overnight, since i know for a fact they werent there when i went to bed because i did a water change on Twitch's QT (he has some open wounds fron getting stuck in a flower pot hole...) and saw Gary (i need to change her name now... XD) cruising around on the bottom of the tank and the walls were clear. 

Well unless i decide to put her in the sorority (20 gallons) there wont be any more mystery snails... unless this clutch hatches anyway... I just dont have the room for the bioload. XD So if she doesnt lay anymore, i wont be too upset by that.


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## BlakbirdxGyarados (Feb 10, 2011)

I'd been following this for a while, didn't respond at all though since I was also ignorant as far as what that was and I was curious to find out what they were....

Now that I do know, it explains the weird clutch of now-I-know-they-were-eggs I found on a few of my and grandfather's tanks a while back.


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## doggyhog (Apr 30, 2009)

Those a Mystery Snail eggs for sure!! I had a snail a while back that laid some but they never hatched. Apparently they can lay unfertilized clutches sometimes.. 

Give a up to 2 months to hatch.. If it doesn't hatch by then, just toss them.


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## Gizmothefreaky (Apr 10, 2011)

BlakbirdxGyarados said:


> I'd been following this for a while, didn't respond at all though since I was also ignorant as far as what that was and I was curious to find out what they were....
> 
> Now that I do know, it explains the weird clutch of now-I-know-they-were-eggs I found on a few of my and grandfather's tanks a while back.


Lol! That's funny. Yeah, i had no idea... I have had mystery snails before, even a couple in the tank, and never saw this before. 
You learn something new every day! :3




doggyhog said:


> Those a Mystery Snail eggs for sure!! I had a snail a while back that laid some but they never hatched. Apparently they can lay unfertilized clutches sometimes..
> 
> Give a up to 2 months to hatch.. If it doesn't hatch by then, just toss them.


Gee, two months... o.o That is a long wait! lol


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