Snail Update...EDUCATIONAL!

I have written a couple of times in the past about having pet snails. In fact we even asked for suggestions on what to name the two snails we found and adopted a couple of months ago. I apologize for not getting back about the name decision...there were just so many good choices that we never really narrowed it down. However, recent events in the lives of our snails have made me realize that they needed names...so we decided to go with John's suggestion of Esc and Argot...even though we have no intentions of eating them.

A week or so ago I went in to feed the snails and noticed that one of them had been digging way down into the dirt in their fishbowl. Right on the outside corner I could see something through the glass. I realized that it was a clutch of small white eggs. Esc and Argot were parents! As the days progressed we noticed more holes and more clutches of eggs. There are three sets for sure, and we are fairly certain there is another set that we had not been able to see from the sides. Today I found lots of tiny snails crawling up the sides of the fishbowl. We took some pictures so you could share in the wonder!
This is a picture of Esc in the process of laying some eggs. The part that looks like tree bark in the center of the picture is actually her neck, and the white blob is eggs in the process of being extruded from the snail. Sorry there isn't a better shot. With the reflective nature of the glass and the white color of the eggs we had a hard time.

This is a seperate set of eggs that Esc laid previous to the above shot. We are still waiting for these to hatch.

The first set I noticed, already hatched into baby snails. We are still waiting for these ones to dig their way out of the soil. I counted 18 in just this set, and there are two other clutches of eggs, plus a bunch of baby snails that were probably hatched from a clutch we can't see from the side.

A hungry snail having a meal after all that hard work...(I would like to think it is Esc, although I have a hard time telling them apart).

One of the baby snails that has emerged. There were at least a dozen around the sides of the fish bowl.

The baby snails are smaller than my pinky fingernail.

My favorite shot. I love the transparency of the snail. As it gets older it will turn brown like its parents.