The mating snails remain in this position during the entire period of copulation: between one hour to a whole day. The total duration of the copulation varies between the species: 1-3 hours in case of Pomacea haustrum to 1-6 hours in Marisa cornuarietis. During copulation the male retracts his head under his shell, while the female snail may still move around and frequently continuous with eating. The male snail is quite persistent while mating and doesn't loose grip even if the couple is lifted from the water.
The female snail can store active sperm for months in her genital tract enabling the female apple snail to reproduce even if she does not meet a male for the months thereafter. Although apple snails don't interbreed with other (apple snail) species they can often be seen to mount each other. For example Pomacea diffusa sometimes mounts Pomacea canaliculata, and vise-versa (latter observated by Pam Spencer).