How snails reproduce!(By Han yi)

Most snails are hermaphrodites-both male and female. All hermaphroditic snails can lay eggs. They can "mate" with themselves and thus only one can reproduce in an aquarium or pond. They also breed sexually as often as possible. Most snails lay eggs but some give live birth.

Snails will be able to reproduce differently than almost any other type of creature because of their species and their make-up.

All snails will be considered sexually mature by the time they are one year old.  This is because the life span of most species does not last for more than five to seven years, allowing for a faster growth rate of the species.

Snails will go through a complete mating ritual with each other, usually which will communicate to the other snail for an average of two to twelve hours.  At the end of this ritual, the pair will fertilize the eggs in the other.  It is known that a snail can carry up to 100 eggs at a time.

When the eggs are fertilized, they will go through a process of growth inside the snail.  This begins with the fertilization moving the snails into a specific amount of development inside the embryo.  This takes place with the snails laying eggs and burying them into a cool place in order to develop.

For land snails, they will be buried underneath the dirt in order to be cared for.  With marine snails, the eggs will be placed next to a solid area, such as a rock.  This will allow the eggs to stay in the same place and develop without being harmed.

The young snails hatch after a few days and then start to breed very quickly.

It will typically take a snail egg two to four weeks in order to develop.

Reflection
At first, I did not ever wonder how does some animals reproduce such as snails, but after this research, I have found out about snails' reproduction. I feel intrigued about this and I have decided to find out more on some of my favorite animals.

Other than the reproductive system of snails, I've found out more on the snails. All snails are classified as mollusks because of the hard shell that protects their bodies. Many people confuse slugs as snails but they aren’t in the same category due to the fact that they don’t have shells.


This assignment makes me feel like I am out of the textbook and I think we can learn more general knowledge through this kind of research. This is one of the many times that I feel Biology is a very lively lesson, not just stuck in the textbook.

Thanks to Ms Nada for helping me to be back to my interest on Biology.