Help identifying this white growth under my lid

[Fishlova4242]

35 gallon freshwater tank. Ghost shrimp, dwarf frogs, Tetra, and live plants. I noticed a rock hard inch long “growth” on the lid of aquarium. Just wondering what it is.

 

[Aiken Drum]

Do you have any snails in there? Mystery snails?

 

[Fishlova4242]

I do have one snail. I had two others but they croaked recently.

 

[Aiken Drum]

Its a mystery snail egg sack. Remove it if you dont want loads of baby snails. Keep it if you want a load of baby snails.

 

[Fishlova4242]

Oh wow. That is interesting. What is loads? I have dwarf frogs wouldn’t they eat some of them? They seems to eat any new shrimp. First time having snails.

 

[ADsnail]

50 to 100 snail-ettes in that egg sac. They always lay at night, generally about twice a week, and always at the top, at or above the water line. Your snail can continue laying eggs for six months after contact with another, so just because the mate is gone doesn't mean you don't have to keep checking. Do you have a heater in there? One clue is the snail hugging the heater in the daytime. It will most likely lay eggs that night. They don't always hug the heater, but it's one way to know.

In the morning, check around the top of the tank, even up around the top of the filter. fresh eggs are totally soft and mushy. Messy to clean off with a paper towel or whatever. One day old, there's a thin crust on the outside. This is a good time to flip it free with your fingernail. 2-3 days, the crust is harder. It may taker a small knife, edge of credit card, etc to remove it. The longer you wait, the harder it is to scrape off.

About three weeks, you'll see the outside looking transparent with little dark dots inside. Those are your snail-ettes formed and about to hatch.

 

[ADsnail]

Oh...if it's rock hard, it's at least several days old, which means no one has taken an interest in eating them. You would be the demolition expert for egg sacs.