Astrea spawning event
 

I had good fortune to be at home and witness three of my astrea snails simultaneously spawning. I will be the first to admit I dont know the first thing about how they reproduce, so I can only assume that I had two males broadcasting sperm and one female releasing eggs. It was really interesting that the female was positioned between the two males. Im not sure whether that was coincidence or not. I apparently wasn't the only one interested in what was going on.

Female in the middle, one male higher up and one male lower
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o.../IMGP2788a.jpg

Shots of the males.
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2790.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2791.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2792.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2793.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2794.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2795.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2797.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o.../IMGP2807a.jpg

I only managed to get one decent shot of the egg release. You can see them above and to the left of the vernatid snail.
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2808.jpg

Some shots of my hooded fairy wrasse enjoying the proceedings.
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2803.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2801.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2799.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2796.jpg

Those are amazing pictures. How fortunate you were there to witness it.

That's definitely interesting.

Have to ask, though....

How do you know what's male and what's female?

One released eggs the other two released.........:)

Awesome shots :biggrin::biggrin:

Awesome shots!

I've seen this happening in my tank before, with only two snails releasing gametes... but was not fortunate enough to have a camera nearby. How long did they proceed for? It was about 3 or 4 minutes when I watched it in my tank.

The spawn lasted for about a 1/2 hour.

Cool! I must have been catching the tail end when I saw it.

I was actually a little amazed at how long they went at it for. Who knew how much sperm and eggs one little snail could carry?

Yeah eh?!

Sidenote... what kind of wrasse is the one at the bottom of this picture? Its beautiful!
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2795.jpg

That is a Mystery Wrasse. One of my favs.:biggrin: My Hooded fairy, Mystery and Lineatus wrasse all had a field day with the spawn. Heres a better pic of the Mystery.
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMGP2684.jpg

spawning astreas
 

i had no idea marine snails are broadcast spawners. i thought they would be like freshwater snails where they mated and laid hundreds of eggs afterward.

Wow! That is a BEAUTIFUL mystery wrasse!!!!