Do snails need partners

Strangest thing... I went away three days for Christmas, and my apple snail suddenly had a little friend: a baby snail. Can snails reproduce asexually?? Or was my snail "pregnant" (or whatever) when I bought it, which was only about 2 1/2 weeks ago... I'm assuming that, no matter what, I'm going to have to get rid of this guy. Any suggestions about humane/nonlethal ways to get this baby snail (interesting as he is) out of my tank? Also, is this going to keep happening?

 

get that thing out of ur tank some snails are hermaphadites they can reproduce on there own i know for sure the black snail can so i dunno but jus take they snail and give him to someone

 

Yup, definitely get it out. Apple snails need a partner. Pond snails & ramshorn snails (which commonly hitchhike into tanks on plants) don't need partners and will reproduce like crazy. I believe applesnails can store sperm, but you would have seen a big, pink egg cluster above the wter line for a few weeks prior to seeing the new snail.

I'm currently having a big problem with snails in my planted tank. I can't use chemicals to kill them, I can't nuke the tank, and I can't fit a snail eating fish in there so my only option is to remove them manually. So every once in a while I either pick out all the big ones I can find and feed them to my oscar, or I just crush them and let the fish in the tank eat them.

-Chelle