Babies?

[Baccus]

I am rather excited and wildly optimistic that I have actually managed to spy not 1 but 2 (YAH 2) notopala babies out and about in my spotted blue eye and native shrimp tank. For now they are only tiny wee little tackers that seem to have clear shells, but from what I can make out of them they seem to have the right body form and shell shape to be notopala. I did battle with my demented camera which hates to actually focus on anything small and these are the best photos I could get of these two little snails.

If they are little notopalas and they are always clear like this while young, they would be near impossible in the wild to locate unless you happened to find them on a rock or something rather than buried in the mud/silt/ sand.

Anyway here they are see what you think these little guys are.

and the second one I spotted

 

[Baccus]

After some more scrutinising and squinting through a not so good magnifying glass, then mucking about with the new computers picture programs and zooming in on the photos I think my suspicion is CORRECT !

Here is a zoomed in photo showing the separate mouth part to the body and even the foot spots already appearing along with the patterns on the antenna. And the telltale side breathing/ feeding siphon

 

So I guess the next obvious questions are....

How long is the gestation of the notopala babies?

and

How many babies do they have at any given time?

[Baccus]

The news just keeps getting better for me....

Went back out to the tank to have another look at the 2 babies I spotted earlier and low and behold I found another 2 making a grand total in view 4 along with one adult that looks to be Bolt. ( Bolt is a dark shelled notopala who often rockets about the tank)

And this little fella getting payback on a Ramshorn snail.

I wonder how many more babies are sulking about in the tank, I almost never see the 7 adults, if I do the most I can usually find at any given time is 5. Looks like from now on I am going to have to be extra vigilant when removing plants in case any little snails are hiding on them along with any spotted blue eye eggs.

[NoGi]

Wow, congratulations. That's awesome, native snail breeding program.

[Baccus]

I truly believe that any endangered or threatened species should be allowed to be kept by private breeders, ensuring the genetic diversity is kept rather than locking up a species  (and limiting the genetics) that one but certain zoos can ever hope to keep.

I am always reminded of the story about a certain strain of rainbow fish that was thought to be extinct on Fraser Island, but a private collector came forwards and actually had a thriving population. From that population they where able to re-introduce the rainbows back to their particular lake/ lagoon on Fraser Island.

I have no idea if the type of notopala I have is actually considered threatened, endangered or even rare but considering there is a few listings of recordings of them from the Fitzroy River Catchment I guess they are relatively wild spread for now. That of course may change if the powers that be manage to go ahead with the demented plan of stuffing up another waterway and damming the Fitzroy River. Literally a Dam would Damn it.

[jayc]

Completely agree with you there Baccus.

They (conservation people) should release a programme for a select few breeders to keep and increase the population, then returning it to the wild or spreading a few to other breeders in the community.

[Disciple]

That is great. Keep it up.

[Baccus]

Either the snails have had previous babies that I had never seen previously, or certain babies are growing very fast.

Question Since a baby shrimp is called a shrimplet is a baby snail called a snaillet?

[jayc]

16 hours ago, Baccus said:

baby snail called a snaillet?

There is no name for baby snails.

So they are just called "Baby snail".

[newbreed]

I vote for calling them kittens. Lol

[jayc]

I vote for calling them "Gary" (as in Sponge Bob's pet snail).

[Baccus]

Am update, the babies are now starting to leave the original area that I was always able to find them in, I guess this means they are leaving their "birth area" and starting to look for new or undepleted food sources.

I have also noticed at least one baby bigger than the other same sized 4. I can only guess this bigger baby is from an earlier batch of babies that where born in another area of the tank and thus I never saw them, until they started venturing off to new areas.

[Baccus]

New update....

Some of the babies are just starting to develop body and shell colour instead of being clear and white shelled. I don't know if this means that their growth will start to slow a bit now, but they are certainly getting harder to locate in the tank.

[Baccus]

I am now lucky to locate even one baby snail in the tank, I guess they have all moved into new areas of the tank or taken to burying in the substrate. I am hoping that in a few more weeks I might suddenly find a heap of snails getting about the tank. I was hoping to be able to go back to the river and maybe find some more adult snails but after some recent rain the river has risen a bit again and a croc was seen on the salty side of the barrage not so far from the fresh water area that I was finding the snails.