of reproducing. Most species of the small pond snails we are so familiar with (sometimes whether we want to be or not) are usually bisexual. Two snails will couple and fertilize each other. They will leave those little patterned gelatan masses around the tank not long after.
There are also those Malaysian livebearer snails; the little cones who sift under the gravel. They are great for livebearer tanks and plants. As pretty strict carnivors they do a great job of cleaning up. They also move the gravel around and that breaks up gas pockets which could become toxic. Their durability and ability to survive all kinds of efforts to remove them is legendary.
If a person wants to breed egglayers, under no circumstances do you want these guys in a tank. One will think they have very few. But come back a half an hour after lights out. You will not believe how many have climbed out of the gravel and are foraging on the tank sides.
More than one aquarist has been startled to see their gravel lurch to one side and has looked in the glass of whatever they were drinking and has wondered what their spouse really slipped in there. It was just the snails doing a "student body left". ;)
There is also a handsome, larger Japanese livebearing snail, which is spoken of admiringly in aquarium circles. They have gotten loose in places in the Eastern U.S. So again, be careful not to let them go.
The apple snails are male or female, so I'm told. How one identifies the genders I don't know I unless one gets a chance to see females laying eggs above the water's surface. That is a fascinating process to watch as eggs emerge from her body and are conveyed along her skin some distance and placed upon the pile above the water in the warm, humid space under the tank top.
They at any rate figure genders out in warm to hot weather. If the egg mass is dumped into the water, the eggs will drown!
It shouldn't be too hard to control the population. Throw out the egg masses. Of course that is easier said than done.
I actually like the idea of putting the egg mass on top of a rock with the turtles if they eat snails. It is a natural food and should be less exposed to disease than wild snails might be. (And they are easier for us to deal with than small fishes as turtle chow.)
This is being quickly typed off the top of my head (there's lots of room there anyway.) So this info is certainly subject to revision. :) If the power doesn't go off ... yet again, this will get finished soon.
For further info, google search under the general names given above or check out that Apple snail site already mentioned, As you find scientific names, you will be able to open even more information avenues using them to search.
I understand all too well the impulse to purchase something new and fascinating at a shop. Something you should be able to do, if they offer a creature of interest, is ask if they have a reference book you could look that animal up in. In many cases you can get a pretty quick idea of what is needed to care for that animal and how big they get.
Sometimes the shop benefits by being able to sell you an additional product involved in their care. So it may be in the shop's interest to have a couple of key reference books around.
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