Birth process of Sulawesi Tylomelania snail

[Draka]

Hello all! This is just to share the birth process of a Tylomelania snail that I just witnessed. I had only got the snail from a bro here and was acclimatising it when the joyful event happened.

It must have been a shock birth though, but thankfully the mother and child both seem fine ^^

The parent first became half-withdrawn into the shell. Then, the baby snail is passed forth from inside the shell of the parent (appears to be near where it normally defecates) and directly held by the foot of the parent. There is a layer of transparent membrane over the baby snail and its shell. The parent holds the baby snail and this membrane whilst the baby squirms about, breaking free of the membrane. The baby is soo cute!

Pics below.





Sorry for the poor quality of image, had to make do with what I had on hand. In the last photo you can sort of see the membrane being stretched between the baby snail's shell (top right side) and the mother's foot on the left.

Momma snail is resting and baby snail is exploring as of now.

[Zenith82]

Congrats! So lucky of you! I've keep tylo snails too, so far keep 4months, kept about 6 adults and had 3 babies so far. They take very long to grow and birth rate very low 1~2 a time only.
Very interesting snail that live birth apart from mostly eggs. Happy keeping them!

[Draka]

Thank you! Haha I always love the babies! I kept 3 a while back but pH was too low and 2 up lorry so I gave the third away. Yep! Mine loved to munch on java moss. I always love their feelers!

[boxedfish]

congrates!!!! looks like you have a yellow speckled tylomelania snail... Missed those days when i keep lots of them!

[Fiona]

Congrats!! =)

[mincedmeat]

Congrats on the new born! Keep us updated on the growth of the snail!

[Draka]

Thanks boxedfish, fiona and mincedmeat! Boxedfish I can still remember your tank of beauties! Haha minced, thanks, I will.

[Shi Xuan]

Good luck with the Tylomelania sp. babies! I guess it should be Tylomelania gemmifera "Yellow spots" from what I can tell. With such success, you should give other Tylomelania species a try, especially Tylomelania sp. "orange".

BTW, any photos of your tank? I am considering setting up a small tank, either a terrarium for Geosesarma sp. crabs or perhaps a biotope just for sulawesi shrimps and snails.
Here's one reference that I took;
http://www.shrimpnow.com/forums/show...2%B4s-new-tank

[boxedfish]

Congrats on the new born! Keep us updated on the growth of the snail!

i would say they will take 2 years or more to reach adulthood..

[Draka]

BTW, any photos of your tank? I am considering setting up a small tank, either a terrarium for Geosesarma sp. crabs or perhaps a biotope just for sulawesi shrimps and snails.
Here's one reference that I took;
http://www.shrimpnow.com/forums/show...2%B4s-new-tank

Haha Shi Xuan, I've tried the orange, yellow and white spot babies before. They were doing fine at pH6.5 until one day the pH crashed and they all died. On hindsight, adding coral as a decoration into a soil tank is not a smart thing to do and trusting LFS owners just because they look like they know what they are doing isn't very smart either.

Anyway for references you ought not to look at my tank as the success isn't mine, the mama snail came already impregnated. I'm trying out clay as a substrate and the results is very messy and livestock was only introduced 2 days ago. The snails are still having trouble adjusting, I was keeping TDS at 130 ppm, and therefore it can be concluded that its not a good set-up. pH is 8.0 though, using Sera pH liquid tester.

[boxedfish]

clay substrate might not be suitable for the snails.. they prefer course sand. fine substrate will make it difficult for them to move around..

[mincedmeat]

clay substrate might not be suitable for the snails.. they prefer course sand. fine substrate will make it difficult for them to move around..

What you are saying would mean that coral sand would not be suitable since the sand itself is quite fine as compared with normal gravel?

[Draka]

Hey boxedfish, as I noticed, yea. But they do nose at the clay. I think coral sand interspersed with some larger rock fragments might be my eventual set up. This is after all a trial ^^

[Zenith82]

What you are saying would mean that coral sand would not be suitable since the sand itself is quite fine as compared with normal gravel?

Coral sand is ok. There are fine and coarse types. But don't get the sudo fine reef sand. Those too fine and even shrimps don't like to move on them. Coral sand is good. Im using now, manage to keep my snails and shrimps happy. Manage to breed me 3 tylo snails offsprings and some cardinal shrimplets.

[oiishi]

I use coral sand for my snails.

[mincedmeat]

Now I see where you guys are going, which also means I am on the right track!