White spots on my rocks?

[snoskiur]

Today I noticed something odd in my 180 gallon Malawi tank. On a couple of my slate pieces, there are scattered white spots.

I assume it's some sort of organism, but haven't seen it before. I have two snails that I added a month or two ago that I was assured will not reproduce with any salt in the tank - could it be snails? It looks like small pinhead size white mounds. It doesn't look at all like Ick.

 

[minifoot77]

they are nerite eggs...

 

[snoskiur]

What is that? Neverheard of it...

 

[Pat Kelly]

It could also be planaria?
Not sure on the spelling.

Small white worms that show up if your feeding too much and the tank gets dirty?

"they are nerite eggs..." Of course the question here is do you have any Nerite Snails in the tank?

 

[minifoot77]

I have two snails that I added a month or two ago that I was assured will not reproduce with any salt in the tank - could it be snails?

what do your snails look like? nerite snails leave small white sesame seed sized eggs that will not develop....

 

[jonclark96]

I agree with Minifoot. Nerite snails (which will not reproduce in freshwater) will still lay eggs that look like little sesame seeds.

 

[Tony]

yup.

 

[snoskiur]

That's what they're gonna be then. I have two snails that are about the size of a marble and they're black or dark brown. Do I have to clean up the eggs, or will the fish eat them, or what? Should I remove the snails?

 

[Tony]

My fish won't eat them, they wear off/rot away eventually and don't do any harm. Unless they're on the front glass, I ignore them.

 

[snoskiur]

Cool... Thanks. They don't end up littering up the substrate, do they?

 

[Leffler817]

Cool... Thanks. They don't end up littering up the substrate, do they?

Nope. I think eventually they just dissolve.

 

[ezrk]

I agree with Minifoot. Nerite snails (which will not reproduce in freshwater) will still lay eggs that look like little sesame seeds.

One might think that...we have a number of nerite snails in our tanks and they do successfully reproduce.

We find little empty snail shells from time to time, we find little baby snails that slithered into our cannisters from time to time and we are certain we have some snails we didn't start with.

Now, this basically isn't a problematic rate of reproduction, they are not taking over or anything - but they definitely are reproducing. My guess is that our water is hard enough and basic enough for the snails to survive. I read somewhere that the problem nerites have is in softer water their shells slowly dissolve and they die.

That said, we really like the nerites for eating algae. They do a pretty good job.

 

[snoskiur]

Thanks!

 

[jonclark96]

Very interesting. Everything that I have read says that nerites need brackish conditions to reproduce.

 

[snoskiur]

That's what I heard, too. I wonder if the salt I add to my tank is enough to "trick" them into thinking it's brackish?

 

[DiscusnAfricans]

I think the salt content has to be fairly high to be considered brackish.

Maybe some MTS snuck in on some plants? They reproduce like crazy in freshwater.

 

[snoskiur]

MTS??

 

[DiscusnAfricans]

Malaysian Trumpet snails. Small, conical shaped shell. These are very common and usually hitchhike on new plants. They are a nuisance, once you have one it can be impossible to completely eradicate them.

 

[Tony]

I have nerites in some of my tanks and they lay those eggs from time to time. I think that the brackish requirement is for the eggs to mature/hatch.

 

[snoskiur]

Cool. Thanks for all the input!