In recent years, snails have become popular pets. In addition to the well-known ampularia that live with enthusiastic aquarists, many now keep giant African Achatina - huge land snails. Of course, you will need a male and a female to successfully breed your pets, so it is important to know the sex of the snails.
Instructions
Step 1
Most land snails are hermaphrodites. This means that they possess both male and female reproductive organs. However, a land snail cannot fertilize itself. For mating, two individuals are necessary, which become "face to face" to each other, so that their genital openings are opposite each other, then the transfer of genetic material occurs. In the course of observations, it was found that old snails more often take on the female role, while young individuals - the male one. Therefore, if you want to get offspring from your pets, but you only have adult snails, add a young individual to them, and everything will work out.
Step 2
Ampularia are one of the few dioecious snails. There are cases when snails of this species changed their sex. Ampularia of the genus Pila hibernate before becoming the opposite sex, and in the genus Pomacea this can happen at any time. Of course, the sex of a snail can be determined by opening it, but this method is unlikely to suit you. But there are several simple and painless methods.
Step 3
In order to understand the sex of the snail, take it out of the water, put the lid up and wait for the lid to open. Look into the shell, at the top right of the male's mantle, the shell of the penis will be visible. Of course, the untrained eye may not immediately recognize this difference, however, if you put several ampularia next to each other and compare the structure of their reproductive system, you will understand the difference.
Step 4
You can also wait for your snails to start mating. In ampularia, it is the male that crawls onto the female.
Step 5
Another way to determine the sex of an ampulla is to measure the mouths of snail shells. In males, the mouth of the shells is closer to the circumference in shape than in females. If you are the proud owner of an aquarium populated with ampullia, you can measure the mouths of snail shells in two directions and figure out which one is who.
