My Snail Laid Eggs

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AbstractClock18

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I'm really confused right now. My gold inca snail has laid eggs. When I got Mercury, I was told it was male. Then I did some research on sexing snails and also came to the conclusion it was male. I took the lid off the tank today and found what appear to be eggs! According to my research, this snail must have a mate for reproduction, but there are no other snails in my tank. Does anyone know what I should do or how this happened?
 

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I'm really confused right now. My gold inca snail has laid eggs. When I got Mercury, I was told it was male. Then I did some research on sexing snails and also came to the conclusion it was male. I took the lid off the tank today and found what appear to be eggs! According to my research, this snail must have a mate for reproduction, but there are no other snails in my tank. Does anyone know what I should do or how this happened?
im not sure how snail reproduction works but the eggs may hatch or maybe not?
it has to be a female
when they feel like laying eggs it is best to see the gender.
 
im not sure how snail reproduction works but the eggs may hatch or maybe not?
it has to be a female
when they feel like laying eggs it is best to see the gender.
Yeah, so she's definitely female. We read that some snails can be fertile for a while before laying eggs, but I don't know if that's the case here.
 
Inca snails are another name for the gold colouration of Pomacea diffusa (apple snails, mystery snails) and these snails can store sperm like female livebearers and use that sperm to fertilise eggs even when there is no male currently in the tank.

From https://web.archive.org/web/20180502212717if_/http://applesnail.net/
The spermatozoa (sperm cells) of the male can survive for more than a month in the female, and several egg clutches can be fertilised with a single copulation.
 
Hmmm, after 9 months the sperm may not be viable. The website I quoted no longer exists (which is why I had to use Wayback Machine) so their info may be out of date when they said "a month or more" which to me means a month, maybe two, possibly three.
 
Hmmm, after 9 months the sperm may not be viable. The website I quoted no longer exists (which is why I had to use Wayback Machine) so their info may be out of date when they said "a month or more" which to me means a month, maybe two, possibly three.
That does make sense. Although, one source I read but am having trouble finding again said some sperm can last up to a year before the female decides to lay the eggs.
 
So, an update:
The eggs, unfortunately, where not fertilized. I scraped them off the lid (it smelled horrible) and threw them away. For future reference, if I do get fertilized eggs and decide to hatch them, will a Betta eat the young?
 
So, an update:
The eggs, unfortunately, where not fertilized. I scraped them off the lid (it smelled horrible) and threw them away. For future reference, if I do get fertilized eggs and decide to hatch them, will a Betta eat the young?
i do not think so
but just keep em in a breeder box
try to smell the eggs every day later on,
if you have more,
so they dont rot and might make the water bad
 

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