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Came out this morning and found these white dots scattered on my glass, no idea what it is:

 

DSC_0391_zps74536ceb.jpg

Snail eggs

yep... just as eric said snail eggs...

i typically have them all over my rock... its a good thing

 

What a cool morning this has been! Should I worry about them when I clean my glass? I'm getting ready to do a water chane and some rockwork.

  • 2 weeks later...

Soooo, just wondering while cleaning my glass around them today (Btw, there are about 50 more than this now) how long till they hatch? I don't have shells for all of them? Do they just crawl around till they find a place? Do the fish eat em'?

Snails grow their own shells,,,,,,

 

Aaaaand, nature is wicked cool, again. Thanks!

If there's eggs on the glass, you'll probably see them on other panes, on the rock, etc. In my opinion, I don't go to extremes to protect snail eggs on my front pane.

If there's eggs on the glass, you'll probably see them on other panes, on the rock, etc. In my opinion, I don't go to extremes to protect snail eggs on my front pane.

 

I don't really need a plethora of snails, heck, it's only 14 gallons (less with all the rock and sand in there.) Just cool to see everything growing and creating.

Just clean them off. My never hatch.

You might be surprised, Laura. One of the coolest things I saw a few years ago came when I pointed a 20x magnifier onto my sand bed at the edge of my front pane. The life there is incredible. You'll see tiny snails size of a sand grain. Mysids the size of 5 or 6 sand grains. Worms and all kinds of stuff. Some snails lay multiple eggs in clear dome-like packets. A close up of these as they're developing reveals tiny, tiny snails with spiral shells already developing. I'll bet that a lot of time they do hatch. It's just that few of them make it very far in life before becoming a snack for something.

You might be surprised, Laura. One of the coolest things I saw a few years ago came when I pointed a 20x magnifier onto my sand bed at the edge of my front pane. The life there is incredible. You'll see tiny snails size of a sand grain. Mysids the size of 5 or 6 sand grains. Worms and all kinds of stuff. Some snails lay multiple eggs in clear dome-like packets. A close up of these as they're developing reveals tiny, tiny snails with spiral shells already developing. I'll bet that a lot of time they do hatch. It's just that few of them make it very far in life before becoming a snack for something.

 

I want a 20x magnifier... Do you have one of those magnetic magnifiers that they sell for reef tanks?

I get them all the time as well and have never seen them hatch. For 4 months straight I didnt clean the side of my tank because there was a lot of eggs and never saw any of them hatch. But I did have tons of coraline algae..

LOL I have about 30 babies now in my pico tank... believe me they hatch... you just may not see it or the fish may eat them right after... I only have 1 fish in my pico so no one to eat them.... between those and the asterina stars Im being over run, lol

Sorry... 16.5x (with my reading glasses, easily 20x) ... $5 at Harbor Freight

 

http://www.harborfreight.com/165x-jewelers-clip-on-eye-loupe-94364.html

 

Those around you will look at you like you're crazy as you'll be right up to the glass, looking in. I also have a DD scope and a small handheld USB microscope, both of which are considerably more expensive, but the clip on loupe shines a new light on the biotope in the first few centimeters of your sandbed.

Wouldn't a photo loop do just fine? I think I have one somewhere.

Any magnifier with decent optics will work. This one was nice because you didn't have to hold your hand up and, because the optics are about an inch across, you had a fairly wide field of view. Plus, with two optics, you can play with magnification. It's also handy for close inspection of coral frags. That said, I'm at that point in life where close-work requires reading glasses. So, it's a simple thing for me to clip these onto the arms of a pair of those. One of the benefits of aging, I guess! :cool:

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