can apple / mystery snails be boy or girl or are the both. (some snails are) if they have a seperate sex how do you tell the differencce. thanks tim

Apple snails are sexual so they are either male or female. They can be sexed but it's not that easy. If you go to http://www.applesnail.net you can see an in-depth description of how to sex them with diagrams. Click on anatomy and then reproductive system.

thank you very much robyn

Wowsers they are huge snails !!!
I've definantly learnt something new today, I've never seen anything like them !!!.
How long does it take them to get that big ??? I saw one on the internet as big as a mans hand !!!.
I don't think we get them over here at all, which is a shame - they look like they'd be a mad pet !!!.

Apple snails are full grown in just a year or so but may grow bigger over a few more years after that. The larger ones are the size of tennis balls. They are sold as pets in the US and most of Europe I'm surprised they haven't found their way to Australia.

Robyn, they did find their way. Tim lives in Australia.

We have Mystery Snails - I just bought one yesterday... Like Robyn said about them being called different names but not being the same thing... I have been asking around a lot & as of yet I have not heard of true Apple Snails being over here altho there obviously could be...
Our Mystery Snails don't get anywhere near as big as the Apple Snails...
I was reading about Apple Snails being bred for human consumption in the 80's & they actually got loose & were a huge threat to the rice paddies in Japan ( or was it China - who knows... )

There are many apple snail species and some don't grow as big as others. It's also possible that your mystery snails are not apple snails. Usually they are but basically people will call any species of snail that they do not know what it is, mystery snail. If you get one, you can post a photo.