Runts can develop if some siblings can hog all the food. Be sure to break it into little pieces so everyone can get some. Snello is great first food for baby snails. Now that your babies are hatched, they will be eating on the shell fragments for a while.Īfter that is gone, it will be time for their first meal. Or you can let them drop in on their own without interfering, if all looks like it is going well as is. (Make sure you leave the shell pieces in with them – it is nutritious food!) Otherwise, when that clutch looks really gray and moldy and you can see babies emerging, it is ready and you can gently rub it underwater in the breeding box to release the babies and enjoy your valuable role as being a snail midwife.
They are about the size of a sesame seed when first born. When the babies hatch, they can drop into the breeding box on their own, if they can fit into the crevasses.
Related Read: How to Breed Mystery Snails (in 5 Steps): Everything I Know Your eggs will drown if they are left in the water at this stage! Image credit: MHawkinson, Shutterstock … But not the teeny tiny little babies out.Īnd the breeding box can be attached to the side of the tank to keep it from floating under the filter. What’s amazing to me is the slots in it are big enough to let water in… That slotted lid is PERFECT because the eggs won’t fall in, but humidity can get to them nicely. I’ve used several kinds of breeding boxes, including some DIY, but this design is my all time pick.
You realized you’re going to need a breeding box sooner or later and just put the eggs on top of the slotted lid. There’s also the risk of the clutch falling into the water from so much humidity. You can leave the eggs where they are, but there are risks of the babies being eaten if they hatch into the tank. How long do mystery snail eggs take to hatch?ĭepending on the temperature of your aquarium, it can take anywhere between 9 days to 5 weeks. It’s where your eggs are going to spend the next interval of time until they come out into the world. Not that that’s a huge deal or anything because an egg sack can have around 50-100 eggs in it. You can also use a razor blade, but this can mess up the eggs on the bottom layer. The way that does the least damage is usually gently – I mean GENTLY – twisting it side to side with your fingers until it snaps off. So in most cases you will need to move the clutch.
We don’t want to go to all this work for that. If you let it hatch into the tank directly, all those little babies would just become a snack! If you keep goldfish (or other fish that would eat baby snails), you are going to need to move the clutch. You don’t want to wait too long because it starts to become fragile as the eggs near hatching. It’s appearance changes as well, it gets darker and somewhat clearish looking, whereas before it was very pale pink. Wait at least 48 hours before attempting to move the clutch. … The key is – (in most cases) you have to have a lid.Ī lid is what traps in that humidity and makes a safe chamber for your eggs to ripen. (Bonus: it is great for growing emersed plants!) You can control the amount of mist by raising or lowering it in the water. I put it about 2″ under the water, suctioning it to the side of the tank. So that’s why I really like using an aquarium mister, because you can achieve lots of humidity without altering temperature. This can work, but in tanks with goldfish – especially in the summer – I don’t always want to crank the heat up to like 78 degrees. See, if you use a heater, for it to make condensation, the tank needs to be warmer than room temperature.
When there is condensation, that means there is humidity. If you don’t, the clutch will dry out and won’t hatch.įor this, I use either an aquarium heater or (my preference for tanks with colder water) a mister. Here are my secret 5 key steps to hatching mystery snail eggs.Īgain, it’s not the only good way, but it is one that is reliable for me.