Odd stuff in my tank?

[Nikki]

Just discovered this strange stuff last night in my 4 month old tank with just snails, hermits and cleaner shrimp. Anyone have any idea what it is?

Thanks!

[Samper]

They are snail eggs. I wish I had something more solid than that but I have them from time to time in all my systems and it's definately a snail laying mine.

[zhenya]

I second Chuck's comments. It appears that those are snail egg clusters. What species snails do you keep?

[Nikki]

Hmm, that looks like it is going to make a lot of snails!!!! Embarassingly I do not exactly know. I bought a CUC from garf and I believe there is a mixture of Astrea and ????

Thanks for the ID.

[Nikki]

Actually after a little research at gard it looks like they are cerith and nerite snails. I guess I just let them go ahead and hatch?

[zhenya]

Actually after a little research at gard it looks like they are cerith and nerite snails. I guess I just let them go ahead and hatch?

It does look like a clusters of Cerith snail eggs, I used to find similar patterns on the glass in my tank as well. Nerite snail egg capsules are different in shape and size, and I usually found them on the rock work and sometime on glass but closer to the top of the tank. They looked like sesame seeds...

[Samper]

That makes sense them being Cerith sp. eggs. I keep them but have never seen what laid them. The Nerites in my systems also deposit clear sesame seeds I have seen that much.

[scubadude]

Hmm, that looks like it is going to make a lot of snails!!!!

Hey Nikki

Yup, ditto on Chuck and Genes assumptions that they are ceriths.
Chances of any of them making it long enough to aquire some baby snails is VERY slim...But its ok, just to see that they are laying eggs in your tank is a VERY good sign that your tank is on a good road to maturity. The eggs will more than likely get eaten up by the hungry mouths in your tank. Congrats!

[Nikki]

Awesome, glad to hear that is a sign of good tank water quality :-) Thanks! Yes I have also found these oblong white things on the tank glass and thought they might be snail eggs as well. There actually was a baby snail in the tank at one point, but I think I found his shell floating the other day :-( Oh well, if they all lived I probably wouldn't be able to fit anything else in there!

[FireEater]

Looks like you are ready for Project DIBS!

Learn what to do with them and how to raise them. Brian can get you going in the right direction if you choose.

[Nikki]

FireEater, Thanks for the link to Project DIBS, looks like a worthwhile effort. I have not actually seen any juvenile snails yet so I will wait a bit for my tank to mature further and see if this occurs. They are laying all the time though!