Where Do Baby Snails Come From?

Snails are actually hermaphrodites. This means that every snail has male parts that make sperm and female parts that lay eggs.

While two snails are mating, each of the snails will press the front parts of their foot against the other snail's foot and shoot a rigid dart in to each other. This will make the sperm pass in-between them. One snail though, can do this all by itself! Each snail has the ability to lay eggs, and with accompanying sperm, an egg will grow into a baby snail. Approximately two weeks after the snails have mated, the snail will scrape a hole into the soil then lay their eggs there. 20 to 50 eggs that are laid each time. These eggs are then covered up.

After approximately four weeks they will hatch. Here are some interesting facts about snails.

-  When snails grow, their shells will grow with them.
-  Snails hibernate through the winter.
-  When a snail is approximately a year old it is ready to mate.
-  A snail is related to a slug.
-  There are over 7000 snail and slug species.
-  Snails will eat a plant with their tongue. A snail has thousands of small teeth on its tongue. These are called radula. These radula can grind up pieces of stone to help a snail extract certain minerals that it needs for a healthy and strong shell.
-  A snail can live for up to two years.
-  Snails are called mollusks.
-  Most snails are herbivores. Some snails are omnivores, meaning that they eat both vegetation and meat.
-  A muscle inside the snail's body helps to propel them forward.
-  The biggest sea snail is in Australia. This snail grows more than 77 cm in length and weighs 18 kg!

Baby snails basically come from eggs. Note that all land snails would be deemed hermaphrodites, producing spermatozoa in addition to ova. However, certain aquatic snails, for instance Apple Snails, would be either male or female. However, the do mate.

Before reproduction, you will find that the majority snails perform some sort of ritual courtship prior to mating. This could last somewhere between say two to twelve hours. Snails actually inseminate each other in pairs so as to internally fertilize their ova. You will also find that any given brood may comprise of say up to 100 eggs.

Garden snails, for example, bury their eggs in whatever shallow topsoil is available, mostly while the weather is found to be warm and damp, by and large two to four inches down.

I have a snail in my fish tank but no adults

From mama snail

THe mom snail. =D