Egg ID?

[KTpoopenstein]

I was cleaning out my tank this afternoon and pulled a piece of driftwood out to pick off as many snails as I could (lots of bladder and ramshorn snails) and found a ton of these little eggs. As I understood it, both bladder and ramshorn snails lay eggs in clusters of gel, with the ramshorns being sort of crescent shaped. These are clearly individual eggs, and they're fairly tough, and stuck hard to the driftwood. There's also a few in around the base if a clump of java fern I have too. They're approximately 1mm x 1mm, and they're alllll over the bottom of the driftwood, but not on the top side at all. My tank includes: 1 platy, 6 serpae tetra, 3 peppered cories, 3 assassin snails, and 6 nerites that are temporarily rehomed while the assassins do their work on the bladder and ramshorn snails. I know the nerites lay eggs, and they're fairly obvious on the driftwood too, but these are decidedly different. Thoughts???

 

[Bichir Bro]

I would say they're the tetras but I may be wrong

 

[GodFan]

I was cleaning out my tank this afternoon and pulled a piece of driftwood out to pick off as many snails as I could (lots of bladder and ramshorn snails) and found a ton of these little eggs. As I understood it, both bladder and ramshorn snails lay eggs in clusters of gel, with the ramshorns being sort of crescent shaped. These are clearly individual eggs, and they're fairly tough, and stuck hard to the driftwood. There's also a few in around the base if a clump of java fern I have too. They're approximately 1mm x 1mm, and they're alllll over the bottom of the driftwood, but not on the top side at all. My tank includes: 1 platy, 6 serpae tetra, 3 peppered cories, 3 assassin snails, and 6 nerites that are temporarily rehomed while the assassins do their work on the bladder and ramshorn snails. I know the nerites lay eggs, and they're fairly obvious on the driftwood too, but these are decidedly different. Thoughts???

Assassin snail eggs! You will soon see the little squarish "sacks" without the little white center. After that you will think they died. Then in weeks to months you will see tiny baby assassins coming out of the substrate!

 

[KTpoopenstein]

Assassin snail eggs! You will soon see the little squarish "sacks" without the little white center. After that you will think they died. Then in weeks to months you will see tiny baby assassins coming out of the substrate!

Sweet! Although I'm not sure there is enough food for them at this point. The 3 I have seem to have made quick work of the hundreds of pests I had in there, unless they're hiding somewhere! Maybe I can sell them to one of the LFSs around here!

 

[GodFan]

Sweet! Although I'm not sure there is enough food for them at this point. The 3 I have seem to have made quick work of the hundreds of pests I had in there, unless they're hiding somewhere! Maybe I can sell them to one of the LFSs around here!

Yep! They will stop breeding when yhe meatu food runs out!

 

[KTpoopenstein]

Yep! They will stop breeding when yhe meatu food runs out!

Is the anything (aside from pest snails) that I could feed them? I feed my cories shrimp-based bottom feeder pellets. Will they eat those? Or some other meaty prepared food?

 

[GodFan]

Is the anything (aside from pest snails) that I could feed them? I feed my cories shrimp-based bottom feeder pellets. Will they eat those? Or some other meaty prepared food?

They are literally probably the easiest thing to feed in the hobby. They eat flake, pellet, wafer, fresh, and even algae! However without meaty food they will not breed. I have only had them breed when they had snails to eat however others have had success with other meaty foods. Hopefully one of them will chime in since I am not sure what lol however you can get free MTS at just about any petsmart or LFS.

 

[KTpoopenstein]

They are literally probably the easiest thing to feed in the hobby. They eat flake, pellet, wafer, fresh, and even algae! However without meaty food they will not breed. I have only had them breed when they had snails to eat however others have had success with other meaty foods. Hopefully one of them will chime in since I am not sure what lol however you can get free MTS at just about any petsmart or LFS.

Ah ok. I'm not sure I'm prepared for a long term breeding operation, but since I've got so many eggs, I might as well go with it for now! I'd really like to put my nerites back in the tank and not have to deal with a second tank (even if it is small) any longer than I have to. I'm clearly heavy handed with the food since I've had such a boom of pest snails, so hopefully that will be enough to get these babies to adulthood.

 

[GodFan]

Ah ok. I'm not sure I'm prepared for a long term breeding operation, but since I've got so many eggs, I might as well go with it for now! I'd really like to put my nerites back in the tank and not have to deal with a second tank (even if it is small) any longer than I have to. I'm clearly heavy handed with the food since I've had such a boom of pest snails, so hopefully that will be enough to get these babies to adulthood.

Nerites should be safe from the assassins. They like ramshorn and pond snails but their favourite (or easiest to catch) is mts.