My Ramshorn Snails Are Mating and Laying Eggs

My three ramshorn snails seem very content in their new home.  It’s not big, but it has what they need,  clean water, a rock, and a couple of plants and a snail food every few days.

One of the ways I know they are content is that they are mating.

Ramshorn snail are hermaphrodite.  When they mate both snails are fertilized and both snails lay eggs.  I’ve been keeping a close watch on the snail eggs which are laid in clusters and look like a little, long lump of yellow jello.  I’ve found them on the leaves of the plants, the rock and on the side of the bowl.

Ramshorn snails are excellent at procreating in the right conditions.  And it seems my little snail bowl is just that.

But I don’t want more snails.  The three I have are just enough and if a cluster of snails hatched, my bowl would be overrun.   Then I’d have to figure out what to do with all the baby snails.

So I’ve been scraping the snail eggs off the leaves and rock when I find them.

Yesterday I spotted a cluster of eggs on the shell of one of the snails.  I couldn’t’ help but think that maybe the snails laid them there intentionally.   Since all their eggs keep disappearing, isn’t it safer to carry the eggs around rather them leave the alone on some rock or leaf?

I did feel a little bad scraping the eggs off the snail shell.  But not bad enough not to do it.

And for all I know the snails might be happy not to have a bunch of baby snails crowding them out of their snail bowl.