Ramshorn Egg Development

pik01

AC Members
Sep 28, 2008
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San Jose, California
every now and then I hear people ask how long it takes for a clutch of ramshorn eggs to hatch. While I've read that it takes about 2 weeks, I wanted to see for myself. Initially I saw a fresh clutch on the bottom left corner of my tank, right in front, perfect for photographing. I decided to make a photo journal out of it to track it but Carl, my amano shrimp, came by and made a snack out of the clutch >.<

Still, I didn't want to give up so I stuck one of my pink ramhorns into a breeder trap and just waited for it to lay some clutches on the front side. In a few days I got more than what I wanted: 2 clutches right in front :)

The 2 clutches were laid 1 day apart. Unfortunately I missed one day (the day I had to patch Brooklyn's shell: I was a liiiiittle distracted that day), but the progress is still there to see. Oh, and the temperature was kept at 72F the whole time.

Clutch 01 - Day 01
Clutch 01 - Day 01.JPG

Clutch 01 - Day 02
Clutch 01 - Day 02.JPG

Clutch 01 - Day 03
Clutch 01 - Day 03.JPG

Clutch 01 - Day 05
Clutch 01 - Day 05.JPG

Clutch 01 - Day 06
Clutch 01 - Day 06.JPG

Clutch 01 - Day 07
Clutch 01 - Day 07.JPG

Clutch 01 - Day 08
Clutch 01 - Day 08.JPG

Clutch 01 - Day 09 - by the time I snapped this photo a few had already crawled off to make their own way
Clutch 01 - Day 09.JPG

As you can see, it took much less than 14 days for the first ones to hatch. I was pretty shocked when I saw a teeny little snailette crawling away from the clutch during today's maintenance. Anyway, enjoy!

Oh and you can see Brooklyn recovering in the background, which is my excuse for the planaria in the pics. They were between the breeder and the tank wall so to get to them I would have had to slosh around the whole box. I didn't wanna disturb Brooklyn =/

edit: this would have been so much more effective in full size as a slide show...oh well

Clutch 01 - Day 01.JPG Clutch 01 - Day 02.JPG Clutch 01 - Day 03.JPG Clutch 01 - Day 05.JPG Clutch 01 - Day 06.JPG Clutch 01 - Day 07.JPG Clutch 01 - Day 08.JPG Clutch 01 - Day 09.JPG
 
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Here's the second clutch. Laid a day after the first clutch so none have hatched but I can see them moving around in their eggs.

Clutch 02 - Day 01
Clutch 02 - Day 01.JPG

Clutch 02 - Day 02
Clutch 02 - Day 02.JPG

Clutch 02 - Day 04
Clutch 02 - Day 04.JPG

Clutch 02 - Day 05
Clutch 02 - Day 05.JPG

Clutch 02 - Day 06
Clutch 02 - Day 06.JPG

Clutch 02 - Day 07
Clutch 02 - Day 07.JPG

Clutch 02 - Day 08
Clutch 02 - Day 08.JPG

Clutch 02 - Day 01.JPG Clutch 02 - Day 02.JPG Clutch 02 - Day 04.JPG Clutch 02 - Day 05.JPG Clutch 02 - Day 06.JPG Clutch 02 - Day 07.JPG Clutch 02 - Day 08.JPG
 
Those pictures are tremendous, Pik. It really shows us a lot about their development. Thanks for doing that.

I've put the stills together for you, which I'll attach here. They're compressed files, so the file size should be okay.

Clutch 1 (attached)

clutch1-anim.gif
 
Clutch 2 (attached)

clutch2-anim.gif
 
Thanks.. I thought that was a good suggestion. What else am I gonna do at 3 am? lol.
 
What's hilarious is that you can see that on day 7 you pruned back your anacharis growing in the background! :-) I love 'time delay' photography.

This is a great thread, and I thank you SO much for documenting this so closely, pik!
 
Great work
 
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