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Hatching Your Own Nassarius Snail Eggs!

Nassarius snails are a great addition to your aquarium and many people enjoy keeping them, but have you ever considered breeding them to increase your population or possibly to share the fun with your friends?

If so, you will need some Nassarius snail eggs, plenty of commitment, and a good amount of hard work; this is not particularly easy to do, but it can be satisfying.

However, be prepared for this to go wrong and most of the snail babies to be lost, as raising them successfully is a real challenge, even if you are an experienced fish keeper.

Nassarius snails are pretty little snails that many people keep in their aquariums, and they are quite useful as they are scavengers that will help to keep the tank clean and free from debris.

It is no surprise if you want to increase your population, and it’s quite likely that the snails will lay eggs in your aquarium from time to time, especially if you have a good population already.

You may find their eggs in little hollows or pressed onto the glass, but unfortunately, these will often become a snack for fish before they have a chance to hatch.

If you’re aiming to increase the chances of the eggs’ survival, you will need to move them to a separate tank to hatch. In an enclosed aquarium, they will be picked off either as eggs or as baby snails in a short space of time.

What Do Nassarius Snail Eggs Look Like?

Being able to identify Nassarius snail eggs will be crucial if you want to raise them, and they are very tiny, so they can be rather difficult to spot.

Fortunately, most Nassarius snails like to lay their eggs in clusters on the glass of the tank and this does make them easier to see. They will often look like tiny trails of sand, or smears or thumbprints on the glass.

Each egg is very small and tends to be a sort of sandy, pale color. If you look closely, you may be able to see a transparent exterior and then an opaque or semi-opaque center of white or cream where the baby will grow.

Often, Nassarius snails will lay their eggs in large patches or unusual patterns, and this can look very pretty, although it is a nuisance if you don’t want babies and you want to keep the tank clean.

Nassarius snails always like to lay their eggs on a hard surface, although this will sometimes be on the rocks or decorations of the tank rather than the glass.

This can make them much harder to spot, but if a large number has been laid, you may notice a white layer on the rock, often in a swirly or wiggly pattern.

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How Do You Hatch Nassarius Snail Eggs?

Hatching Nassarius snail eggs is not an easy thing to do, and you should be aware before you start that your chances of success are fairly low, even if you do everything right.

However, it is possible, so if you are really keen, you should set up a separate tank with a very soft filter on its lowest setting, and then give your snails a piece of glass near the top of the tank to lay on (which they will hopefully opt for instead of the tank walls).

If the snails do lay on the glass, you will need to remove the piece of glass as soon as possible, because the fish will quickly pick off the eggs, and can decimate them in just a few hours.

Your secondary tank must exactly match the conditions of the first, and it must have been cycled and made ready prior to the snail laying the eggs.

Add phytoplankton, algae, and diatom; the former is food for the snails when they hatch, and the latter two will prompt the eggs to hatch.

You should place the eggs in this tank, and within a week, they should start to hatch. Make sure that the filter is on its lowest setting before they hatch, as the snails are minute and could very easily get swept into it otherwise.

If they survive, keep adding phytoplankton and keep testing the tank water, because they need plenty of calcium and they will quickly deplete this.

Will Nassarius Snail Eggs Hatch In Captivity?

Nassarius snail eggs will hatch in captivity if they are given the correct conditions, but you should be aware that it is hard to successfully raise them because the baby snails are so tiny; they are very vulnerable to filters and being consumed by any other predators in the tank.

You must provide a separate container with the perfect conditions for them, and keep the nutrient levels balanced once the snails have hatched. It will take months for them to grow up.

Few people try to hatch Nassarius snails in home aquariums because it is so difficult, and the success rate is low.

You will need to do some research into the things that the babies need (e.g. calcium and other nutrients) and check that the tank is perfectly balanced for them at all times.

They do not need adult snails to be present in order to grow up, as they are independent of their parents.

On the whole, it is much easier to purchase Nassarius snails when you want them than it is to hatch them yourself. However, if your snails are laying eggs and you want to have a go, it is theoretically possible to hatch and raise Nassarius snails in a captive environment.

Conclusion

If you have seen Nassarius snail eggs clustered on the glass of your aquarium and decided to try getting them to hatch, make sure you can set up a secondary aquarium for the babies to grow up in. Provided you are able to do this and you can commit the time to keeping the water levels balanced and adding phytoplankton regularly, you may have success with raising Nassarius snails. However, don’t be disappointed if you find that this is too challenging; these snails are not easy to hatch in captivity!