well i know cana need male and female to reproduce, but my question is will females lay eggs if there is no male in the tank?
i must be up to 7 cluthes now and have yet to see a baby in the tank
so i'm wondering if i could have wound up with all 8 i have being female
the first cluthes laid must be 3 weeks old by now

By "cana," I assume that you mean Pomacea canaliculata? If so, I had that species. They are sexual so they are male or female and must mate to produce eggs which are laid out of the water. It is possible that a virgin female would lay eggs but they would not be fertile. If you have 8 apple snails in there of the same species, it would be very highly likely that the eggs are fertile. In an aquarium (versus a pond), apple snail eggs don't always hatch, or the newborns are eaten by other animals in the tank. It's usually a matter of humidity if the eggs don't hatch. They must be humid but not in water. Where are the eggs laid? Are they on the glass lid or sides? Does the tank have a lid? What kind? What is the temperature where the eggs are? According to applesnail.net, the eggs take 5-7 weeks to hatch on one section on the site and 2 to 4 weeks in another section. I think it's normally a month. If your oldest eggs are only 3 weeks old, then they may not be ready to hatch yet.

the clutches are all stuck to the sides of the tank right near the top above the water line, tank has a lid and i make sure its always topped up so the cluthes dont dry out yet dont get submirged, tank sits around 78F
i also had 2 cluthes that were stuck to the lid,but those dropped off and fell into the water so i know they died
guess i'll just be patient and wait to see if these hatch

It sounds like they should be okay then. Be patient and maybe they'll still hatch. Check for signs of change/holes in the egg masses each day to see if any have tried to get out.

im very new to this so im not offering advice rather an account of my own little unexpected snailies that hatched out the night before last.

it had been less than two weeks since we found the clutch which surprised me as the pet shop had told us it would take longer than that however i live in an incredibly humid climate (queensland, australia) and from what i have read i believe this is the reason for their speedy incubation.

during that time a few of the eggs turned white which i assumed was some of them drying out. after about ten days i noticed when looking through the glass at the underside of the clutch that the eggs seemed much darker than normal like they had filled up with the little critters.

two days after that my husband rang me all in a fluster saying they were starting to break out and he didnt know what to do as they would fall right into the main tank with all my omnivorous fishies :o

he hung a container over the edge of the tank that sat right up on the side and supported it with some wire. the container was filled with water from the tank. all the little snailies fell safely into the container and then could be moved to a safer place.

i put fine fish flakes, java moss and some wisteria in the container and they seemed to enjoy that. i have bought a calcium feeder block to put in there as apparently this is excellent for their shell development.

as i said, not offering advice here just recounting my experience with them and everything seems to be going well at the moment.

emily :P