Snaily behavior

[hotwinter]

The other day my partner had left the lid open on our 3fter after feeding the fish and I noticed this strange white blob on the inside of the lid. I walk over and discover it to be snail eggs!

We have 1 snail. Now why would my snail be laying eggs if it doesn't have a partner to fertalise them. Can snails breed if there is only one of them in a tank?

We destroyed the eggs as we are not ready to be snail parents yet. I've been told that they multiply VERY quickly and we're DEFINATLY not prepared for that.

Especially with the our Kribensis who should be breading any day, aswell as some new bristle nose additions. If they do breed on their own...how fast? Should I get rid of him?

[wombat1100]

Cant say i know if they can breed on their own or not , but i do know they can infest your tank VERY quickly if kept unchecked, i personally hate them!
I have had to spend weeks trying to get them out of my tanks.
What sort of snail do you have?
I have always got mine when i buy new plants and have clown loaches to try and curb the numbers.

[hotwinter]

um...he's just your everyday variety that you find in almost every pet shop. Well I'm checking every day to make sure it's not trying to spread its seed, so far only the one incident. I might think about getting some clown loaches when I bring my other tank down.

[lil_fuzzy]

A mystery snail? It won't breed on its own, but if it's new I supposed it coulda been fertilised at the store.. Sounds like it's a mystery snail from the eggs.

Some other snails, such as pondsnails that usually come in on new plants can breed even if they are alone, but they don't lay eggs like that. They lay eggs on the plants and they are almost see through and very difficult to spot.

[Woodsy]

Snails are asexual, they can reproduce on their own ;)

[hotwinter]

oh well then my snail isn't such a freak for just laying another batch of eggs three times the size as the first?

So you sall suggest clown loaches to keep the numbers down? Can I have clown loaches, silver shark, yellow chicled and peacock in together? Or will there be too muh confrontation? I've got plenty of hidey holes if that's all they need, but I don't want my cichlid picking on the loaches.

[wombat1100]

Ive always had Clown Loaches in with my cichlids, rainbows and actually most other fish i have owned with no problem at all, great fish and entertaining if kept in a school. Probably one of my top favorite fishes!

[lil_fuzzy]

Nope, mystery snails are not asexual and will not breed when they are kept alone. Some snails, such as pondsnails, are hermaphrodites, and will breed even if they are alone. If it's continuing to lay eggs then it's not a mystery snail.

[Woodsy]

My apologies for generalising :p
Reticulated or Chain Loaches are another possibility, or if you've got a spare 75-odd bucks up your sleve just looking for that magic fish to set your tank off, you could try Striata Loaches. Alternatively, most gourami species (and other anabantoids for that matter) will do the job for you ;)

[hotwinter]

Well I won't be adding my gourami to the tank for a few more weeks, so I'll probably go with one of the species of loaches.

Well what ever kind of snail it is, it just keeps laying these blobs of pinky white eggs on the glass and wood outside of the water.

[hotwinter]

We went down to the aquarium where we bought our snail from today. They couldn't tell me what kind of snail they were but they said that yes they can breed on there own. They said that the clown loaches wouldn't eat the type of snail that we have but the oscars would. And seeings we had so much extra room in the tank these days we bought two baby oscars, one's white, one's black.

Watch out snail babies!