Remember last week when I posted a video of my Mystery Snails Pearl and Socrates mating? Well, Saturday morning I found Pearl, all pulled up in her shell on the floor under the fish tank.
Mystery Snails lay their eggs outside the water. I’ve read that if you don’t fill the tank to the top they will lay their eggs there. But even though we did that, Pearl apparently left the tank to lay her eggs. I knew she was in the tank when I went to bed the night before but wasn’t sure how long she’d been out of the water.
A Mystery Snail can stay out of water for days as long as they stay moist because they breathe air. But, especially this time of year, with the woodstoves going, our house is very dry.
Still, I picked Pearl up and put her back in the tank hoping for the best.
Then Jon and I met our friend Jackie at Benson’s Fish Room. It’s a specialty Fish Shop with exotic fish, shrimp and some snails that I’d never seen before.
We just went to look but came home with a few Rainbowfish, a pink plant that grows lilypads and two Rabbit Snails.
I don’t know anything about Rabbit Snails, so far, except what I’ve observed.
They aren’t as elegant as Mystery Snails or Nerite snails and move much slower. Their bodies are long and their “foot” small which makes it look like they have a hard time pulling that long shell around. But it’s interesting to watch them, and I’m looking forward to learning more about them (which I’ll be sure to share with you all).
As soon as we got home I looked in the tank and there was Pearl, sliding up the wall eating algae. I’m sure she laid her eggs outside the tank because she no longer seems interested in leaving it. I was very glad to see her alive and well and also glad that we won’t have hundreds of baby Mystery Snails hatching in the fish tank.
(Below is a timelapse video of one of my new Rabbit Snails. You can see how different they are from the other snails I have.)
