Black skirt tetra eggs..help!

[Minabug]

So..at the tank I care for at the elementary school I came to feed the fish and saw a surprise today. In the corner there were fish eggs! They had to of come from my black skirt tetras. My question is, what do I do now? They weren't there yesterday but were there this morning. It's a 55 gallon with some black skirt tetras, platys, a snail, and an algae eater. It's on the side where the algae eater hangs out. I don't have another tank for them other than a 1 gallon at home but I don't have a heater for it other than the light that's with the tank. Should I go back and bring the eggs home and put them in the 1 gallon, or leave them in the 55gallon and let them hatch? If I leave them in the 55gallon, should I move them to the other side? Right now they're on the side with the log that the algae eater constantly hangs out in and don't know if he'd try to suck up the eggs or not, or even if the snail may bother them. If they do hatch, how do I care for them? I saw one thing online about putting them in another tank with the 'parents' and feeding the babies brine shrimp or egg yolk, I have no clue who the 'parents' are..there's 5 black skirt tetras in the tank.

[Samzter]

You could move them into a floating hatchery but tetra eggs are light sensitive . That's all I know but if you leave them in the main tank with all the other fish most will be eaten unfortunately

[LyndaB]

I take a "let nature takes its course" method with my tanks. Whatever fry survive on their own, great, if I don't have any, then I don't end up overstocked. I end up having very well balanced tanks this way.

[Minabug]

I just brought them home with the little hood light that came with the tank, should I turn it off then?

My tank isn't overstocked at all at the school, lol. It could use a few more! Someone tried to give me a huge pleco for the tank and I did decline that though because I didn't want it hurting my smaller pleco and between my pleco now and my snail there's not enough algae for a huge pleco to survive.

[daveho]

you do need to feed plecos.... depending on size a few algea wafers a day and they love blanched veggies

[Minabug]

I do feed my pleco algae wafers, give him a couple a day. He loves to move them around the tank, my pleco is a crazy one!

[jetajockey]

What do the eggs look like?

[Minabug]

Originally Posted by jetajockey

What do the eggs look like?

Little white gooey/sticky balls I guess you could say Strange way to describe it I know.

[jetajockey]

Originally Posted by Minabug

Little white gooey/sticky balls I guess you could say Strange way to describe it I know.

Can you get a picture? I'm not sure if those would be tetra eggs.

[Minabug]

Originally Posted by jetajockey

Can you get a picture? I'm not sure if those would be tetra eggs.

Sure, I'll try to get a picture and post it. I only have black skirt tetras, one pleco, one snail, and platys.

[Bubbles0oO]

They may be unfertilized pleco eggs. Tetras are egg scatterers so they wouldn't be in the same place , and platys give live birth. And depending on the snail ( pond/ apple/ mystery) pond snails lay small clear clutches with little tiny white snails in them, apple/mystery snails lay clutches above the water

[Minabug]

Aww pleco eggs, how cute. Shame they wouldn't hatch though. Here's pictures, best I could get with my camera!

[Minabug]

Anyone know?

[jetajockey]

Those look like mystery snail eggs, were they above the water line at any time?

[Minabug]

Originally Posted by jetajockey

Those look like mystery snail eggs, were they above the water line at any time?

No, not that I know of. It's a fish tank at an elementary school so they could have been at one point and I wouldn't of known it.

If it is snail eggs, will they hatch? If so, how long?

[jetajockey]

Here's a link with info on mystery snail eggs. They are supposed to be kept humid but not submerged. The pic looks way too big and too clustered to be tetra eggs. Possible that its pleco eggs but they look a little large.

The Apple Snail (Ampullariidae) Website Click the 'care' tab and scroll down to reproduction.

[Minabug]

Originally Posted by jetajockey

Here's a link with info on mystery snail eggs. They are supposed to be kept humid but not submerged. The pic looks way too big and too clustered to be tetra eggs. Possible that its pleco eggs but they look a little large.

The Apple Snail (Ampullariidae) Website Click the 'care' tab and scroll down to reproduction.

They are clustered but it's not too big, maybe an inch or two inches max. Should I pull them out of water or think it's too late since they already were dropped in water at the school?

Thanks for the link!

[jetajockey]

well if there was only 1 pleco in the tank they were definitely not fertilized so nothing is going to hatch anyway, so i'd probably remove them. If they are mystery snail eggs they have likely drowned by now but you can try to hatch them anyway. You just need to keep them in a humid environment, some people do it with a small container with damp paper towels and a tight lid. There's a few writeups on it via google, just look up artificially hatching mystery snail eggs.

[Minabug]

Originally Posted by jetajockey

well if there was only 1 pleco in the tank they were definitely not fertilized so nothing is going to hatch anyway, so i'd probably remove them. If they are mystery snail eggs they have likely drowned by now but you can try to hatch them anyway. You just need to keep them in a humid environment, some people do it with a small container with damp paper towels and a tight lid. There's a few writeups on it via google, just look up artificially hatching mystery snail eggs.

Thank you! I'll try and see if they're mystery snail eggs or not. I feel bad if they drowned.

[Bubbles0oO]

If they were layed above the water then hey are dead now, the eggs have to stay dry if you want them to hatch. ( for the snail) and usually apple snails lay hundreds of eggs , so i would check the lid for any remaining eggs. But im still sticking with pleco eggs lol