Breeding the Blue Mystery Snail

Pomacea bridgesii has separate sexes and lays pink calcareous egg clutches above the waterline; an air gap is essential because the eggs are laid out of water.

Overview

The Blue Mystery snail is a color variant of Pomacea bridgesii, an apple snail (family Ampullariidae). It breeds readily in freshwater but has a distinctive above-water egg-laying strategy that the tank setup must accommodate.

Sexing

The species is gonochoristic, so a male and a female must both be present for reproduction. Apple snails possess both a gill and a lung, plus a tubular siphon to breathe air, which allows the female to leave the water to deposit her clutch.

Egg-laying & the Air Gap

Females deposit eggs above the water line, typically on the glass walls above the waterline, the lid, driftwood, or emergent vegetation. Apple snail egg clutches are calcareous and recognizable by their light pink color; laying them out of water protects them from aquatic predators. Because the clutch is laid out of water, an air gap above the surface and a covered tank are essential, since submerged eggs do not develop normally.

Eggs & Young

A single egg-laying event can produce as many as two hundred offspring, though not all eggs are necessarily fertilized. The eggs take 2-4 weeks to hatch. Hatchlings risk being eaten if they share the tank with fish. The species cannot tolerate conditions below about 10 °C (50 °F).