THE VARIED ROLES OF SNAILS - National Universities Commission

live on the surface so that they can come up to breathe
easily.
You can often buy pond snails from a pet or aquarium
stores. One common pond snail often sold is called
“Apple” snail or golden snail.
The pond snail feeds mainly on plants like algae and
microscopic creatures that are found on the surface of
waterweeds. They eat by scraping bits off with their rough,
sandpaper-like tongue, just like the garden snails.
When pond snails are threatened and want to hide, they
bury in the sand, or hide beneath rocks or logs on the
bottom of the pond. In the ocean, snails will hide in caves,
or on rock ledges.
Some snails have pointy spines on their shells to keep their
enemies from eating them; some have very heavy shells
that discourage their prey. Some snails have a body that
comes over their shells to camouflage them from those that
would eat them, and some are poisonous to fend off prey.
Most pond snails reproduce just like the garden snail. It is a
hermaphrodite. The only difference is that, unlike the
garden snail, the pond snail carries its fertilized eggs with it
or sticks them onto or under foliage or stones. If carried
around on their mother’s shell, the baby snails will only
leave their mother when they are hatched.
Some pond snails can swim and others can bury themselves
in the sand very quickly.
Gastropods III: Marine Gastropods:
These are the conchs (Strombidae), whelks (Buccinidae),
limpets (Lotiidae), periwinkles (Littorinidae), cones
(Conidae), volutes (Volutidae), and cowries (Cypraeidae)
that live in the seas.
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