Guaranteed to Work
Made in the USA
Doctor Recommended
Secure Online Ordering
Mollusca Reproduction
One of the interesting topics about biology is the mollusca reproduction. The mollusca reproduction varies in different classes and can be complex. However with its complexity understanding how these creatures produce their offspring and multiply is important for us human beings. Mollusca reproduce sexually and one example is the Bivalve. Bivalves consist of clams and mussels and these creatures are hermaphrodites or have 2 separate sexes, (male and female). These bivalves reproduce by releasing eggs and fertilization happens externally. The sperm in the water fertilizes these eggs forming a plank tonic larval stage.
The spawning during mollusca reproduction is also dependent on the temperature. The typical spawning season happens during the months between April to November. Once the little spawns are hatched in time they swim freely in the surface and then several weeks later these larvae settle to the sea bed and spend the rest of their mature life buried in the sand, rocks and just settling underwater.
The mollusca reproduction for octopus is through sexual mating by a male and a female partner. They sort of have a foreplay and the male octopus usually approaches a female octopus by touching the female ‘s arm as a way of caressing. After the foreplay the male octopus then inserts its arm under the mantle of the female while at the same time ejecting sperms that flows down to the hectocotylus to the female's oviduct. In about 2 weeks, the female octopus will lay approximately 150,000 eggs. The mother octopus guards its own eggs away from attackers to the extent that they will risk their lives just to defend its offspring. The eggs float to the surfaces and in about a month these eggs become larvae that will sink down to the sea bottom and become adult octopuses.
The snail mollusca reproduce by a male and a female that also have 2 sexes sprays the eggs and sperm into the water but fertilization may happen or not and it’s a matter of chance. This unique external mollusca reproduction is not always successful. In mussels there are other forms of chemical agents that stimulate other mussels to spawn or generate their sperms and eggs. Fresh water mussels are quite different that the sea mussels as the larval stage lives parasitically within fish's tissues, gills or fins for about 2 weeks until they detach, and independently live on their own and sink down to settle to the substrate. This behavior of reproduction is one of the strategies for mussels to spread their larvae in order to colonize new mussel beds.
The common land snail mollusca reproduction is done sexually yet both are also hermaphroditic. They do not do it in their own body and they prefer to find another snail partner to mate with. Mating happens also during some particular time and temperature and usually during late spring or early summer. One snail stabs the skin of the other snail with what they call a calcified 'love dart' to stimulate the other snail and the sperm is transferred or exchanged from one to another sexual partner. Female snail mollusca reproduce eggs internally and then fertilized by the sperm that has been exchanged. It takes about 1 month for the snail to lay eggs, 14 days to hatch and 2 years for the larvae mature.
