Hello Everyone,

I have had snails for many years now that live in my large size fish bowl. Nothing fancy here but they have always lived for a long time, as well as the fish and frogs, so everyone seems to be happy with the living situation. I've also never had baby snails before.

I had noticed that my snail had been upside down for a few days, but knew that that seems to happen on and off and just let it be. Then yesterday I looked over and saw what appeared to be a baby snail coming out and sure enough it was.

After having done a little research my guess would be that I have a trapdoor snail. I've had her since late September. I have had only one snail in there since her arrival. How is it possible that she gave birth?? Could she have come pregnant? Is the gestation period really that long (4 months)??

Thanks for any help you can provide. I am in love with my baby snail and am so curious about how he arrived.

We named him Jesus and Mom is now called Mary...since at the time we had no idea how this happened so we thought the names fitting. :)

One more thing, Mom is still upside down. Is she going to be okay??

Jessica

Trapdoor snails are one of the few snails that give birth to live young so that's probably what you have. I don't know of other species that do that but they probably exist. Many egg-laying animals (trapdoor snails have eggs but just hold them internally) have the ability to store sperm for weeks or even months. So, if she had mated right before you got her and held the sperm for say two months, then the baby grew for say two months, then it could have hatched now. It's strange though that she only had one. They usually have about 6 to 20 babies at a time.

I'm not sure why the snail is upside down. Is she upside down on the bottom or at the surface?

My trapdoor section is at http://fishpondinfo.com/snail2.htm#trap

I found this page on snail reproduction:
http://208.112.95.51/FWSubWebIndex/fwsnailreprofaqs.htm
Someone there asked about the gestation time of trapdoor snails but they did not get an answer.

She is upside down at the bottom.

Thanks for your help.

Jessica