the weirdest thing

[korgull]

I wish i had my camera ready for this. In my tank i have these soft shelled snail-like things that I guess were hitchhikers in my rock. What happened was that one of them crawled on to a rock, kind of stretched itself up to a vertical position, and proceeded to blow what looked like "smoke-rings" in the water. I guess it was air bubbles or something it was blowing out, but it was really symetrical the way they came out of its mouth. This is the 2nd time in 2 years that i have seen it happen and i never have my camera ready. Has anyone else seen this before?

 

[ophiura]

I suspect they were spawning :yes:

 

[korgull]

hmm, i never thought of that, i guess it could be eggs? do snails lay eggs?

 

[ophiura]

Well, some do, and some are "broadcast" spawners, which means the males release sperm and females release eggs. "Smoke" tends to be the sperm, and the eggs tend to look a bit larger but still like tiny bubbles. Other types of snails do lay eggs on the glass and such.
This sort of mass spawning (when you have lots of snails), can be to blame for otherwise inexplicable tank cloudiness. The first time a saw a tank cloudy I really went into a panic, but then I caught a glimpse and voila, there was the answer Didn't quite feel right watching too long. But it is a nice bit of extra food for the filter feeders in the tank...and you may get juvenile snails as well. :yes:

 

[korgull]

very interesting, thanks for the answer, hopefully i will get a pic one day and i will post it

 

[bang guy]

Originally Posted by korgull
very interesting, thanks for the answer, hopefully i will get a pic one day and i will post it
You have a Stomatella varia. You can find pictures in the archive.