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MTS (was Re: eggs! (I think))



Brown_D at kids_wustl.edu wrote:


They look fairly clear and amber by ambient light, but while I was here at
the lab I looked at them under a low-power microscope with transmitted
light, and they weren't crystal clear, so maybe they are fertile; I guess
time will tell!

Probably healthy eggs, then. Dead or infertile eggs become quite milky in a few hours or less, and not very transparent.




I'm not sure if these guys are really MTS or not.  I never saw a large
parent snail, but rather suddenly saw hundreds of tiny (1-3 mm) narrow,
white, tapered-shell snails all over the glass, in the evenings, but
they're rarely visible during the day; looking at the web, they seemed more
like MTS than anything else, but I've never seen any larger than about
5-6mm.

They will eat few eggs until they get a little bigger. At about 1/4" to 3/8" they will start eating them. Most species of MTS get to be about 1"-1.5" long, but I have seen some over 2" in ideal conditions. They look about the shape of an ice-cream cone, whereas pond snails do have a pointy end, they are more rounded and egg shaped, overall. An elongated cornucopia spiral with fairly straight sides is usually an MTS-type snail.

If they tend to be white, the problem may be self curing. Very soft water slowly etches away their shells and they can die off from that alone. Most MTS are black, gray, brown, or mottled, with very little of the shell naturally white.

Wright

--
Wright Huntley -- 760 872-3995 -- Rt. 001 Box K36, Bishop CA 93514




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