A family of bubble shell snails came home on the last batch of eelgrass; 2 adults and 4 tiny ones, still just wriggly brown balls. Two of those got lost, eaten, or crushed, but the other two are now full-size.
And they're all working on re-populating the tank. I keep seeing couples twisted together; later, almost every day, there's a new batch of eggs, some on the remaining eelgrass, but mostly on the glass wall.
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| Bubble shell underside, on glass wall. Cream and grey, with egg-yolk internal shell. |
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| The largest of the bubble shells. This one has dots of orange on his back, and a dark rear end. |
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| One of the egg masses, a transparent jelly with almost white eggs arranged in a rough spiral. |
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| Smaller bubble shell, with new egg mass. It looks like his inner shell was cracked at some time, although he has recovered. The shells are paper-thin, and brittle. |
The egg masses gradually disintegrate over a week or so. Looking at a mass a few days old through the microscope, I can see each individual egg; a solid centre surrounded by its own transparent container. Most of these will be spinning around, slowly the first few days, but more rapidly as they develop.
I haven't seen any new babies crawling about, though. It is possible that they get dragged into the filter and destroyed.
I just love your aquarium posts. It's fascinating to me all the things you find. I love learning more about each of the creatures.
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