New here. What are these white spots?

[Terrs]

Hi I’m new to the forum. I have had an aquarium for a few years and currently have 3 up and going. The aquarium in question is a 55 gallon and it is planted. I’m new to the planted aquarium as I’ve only had plants for a few months now. I’ve noticed little white spots and I’ve been trying to identify them without luck. This morning I saw them in my gravel so was able to get a decent pic. I do have hard water so I’m not sure if that has anything to do with these spots.

 

[Aiken Drum]

What else is in the tank? Anything that might lay eggs?

 

[Terrs]

I have one female gourami and mollies. I do have pest snails but I don’t remember if I saw the white spots before the pest snails or not. I first noticed the white spots on a piece of driftwood but they haven’t changed or moved since I first saw them a few months ago.

 

[Aiken Drum]

It looks like a nerite snail egg although they dont normally lay eggs on substrate. They do lay eggs on driftwood though, and in freshwater these eggs dont hatch so will stay where they are laid until you manually remove them.

 

[Terrs]

Thank you. I do have nerite snails but I didn’t include them in my listed stock because I thought (and I’m likely wrong) I saw the white spots before I introduced them to the tank.

 

[ColdKoi]

What type of substrate is it?

I had some white spots like that in my fluval stratum since the first day the tank was set up. Whatever it was seemed to have disappeared over time…

 

[Terrs]

I’ve researched nerite snail eggs and I’m come to the conclusion my spots are nerite eggs. No babies thank goodness because if that were the case I’d be begging people to take them.

 

[ColdKoi]

Nerite eggs won’t hatch in a freshwater tank, so you’re safe if that’s what they are

 

[Aiken Drum]

Nerite snail eggs only hatch in brackish water. You wouldnt have to beg people to take them if they did breed, you could make a few quid by selling them.

Yesterday i had to go to a few stores before i found one that had some on stock (and they had 100s).

 

[ColdKoi]

Yea, if you had some and you were local I would buy some lol.

For whatever reason you just can’t get nerites around here the last couple years! Any time the stores get them in, they sell instantly