what kind of eggs are these?

[DJ-don]

can anyone tell me what these eggs are?
the tanks occupants are 2xL071 2xL397 2xAlbino bn 2xL104 and some cherry shirimp and some snails (dont know name but stay small and have a ramshorn shape)
and these eggs werent there when the plants where added to the tank last year in december and started showing up a few weeks or so ago

i'm guessing they might be snail eggs but i never seen them before

[Suckermouth]

Well they're not plec eggs. Also, unless I'm mistaken, I thought cherry shrimps carried their eggs. They look like snail eggs to me...

[DJ-don]

thanks for the reply

i found out the little snails in my tank where called shining ramshorn snails

could it possible them?

[Hitch]

they look like ramshorn snail egg clutches....

due to their clear sac with white dot appearance and the fact that no one els in the tank would lay eggs like these.

[L number Banana]

Hi DJ-don,

They definitely look like snail eggs but I'm curious about why you've never seen them like that before. Have you done anything different lately? More feeding, less fish, temp change?

It's kind of curious.

[DJ-don]

Hi DJ-don,

They definitely look like snail eggs but I'm curious about why you've never seen them like that before. Have you done anything different lately? More feeding, less fish, temp change?

It's kind of curious.

the truth is i have never seen this kind of thing before. i have seen pond snail eggs but not these

this is my pleco tank
and the L104s and the L397s are very picky with there foods so there has been some leftover food these days so that might be driving the bugs to breed!!

i am getting a powerhead soon which has a flow of 2000L or so per hour and the tank is only 180 litres

would the high current kill off the snails because they cant hang on or something like that?

[MatsP]

I doubt high flow will have a major effect on the snails - they will just locate a quiet corner where surplus food settles.

--
Mats

[L number Banana]

Dj-don:

this is my pl*co tank
and the L104s and the L397s are very picky with there foods so there has been some leftover food these days so that might be driving the bugs to breed!!

Ramshorn might be prettier than the little pond snails that plagued my tank but snails make you water conditions go down the tubes when the die off and you can't readily scoop them out. This advice is from experience - don't overfeed!!! I experience the snail-plague of all time and wouldn't wish it on anyone.
The little blobs don't go up the siphon very easily but they squish nicely, then do a good vacuum to suck up what you can. If you just look at the numbers, 30 blobs of snail eggs times 30 snails each equals 900 snails! eek. Try to take care of the cause now and you won't be kicking yourself later. Chemical snail bombs and catfish don't mix.

For my plecos, I feed at night and remove any leftovers in the morning.
Good luck and kick some snail butt.

[DJ-don]

Dj-don:

this is my pl*co tank
and the L104s and the L397s are very picky with there foods so there has been some leftover food these days so that might be driving the bugs to breed!!

Ramshorn might be prettier than the little pond snails that plagued my tank but snails make you water conditions go down the tubes when the die off and you can't readily scoop them out. This advice is from experience - don't overfeed!!! I experience the snail-plague of all time and wouldn't wish it on anyone.
The little blobs don't go up the siphon very easily but they squish nicely, then do a good vacuum to suck up what you can. If you just look at the numbers, 30 blobs of snail eggs times 30 snails each equals 900 snails! eek. Try to take care of the cause now and you won't be kicking yourself later. Chemical snail bombs and catfish don't mix.

For my plecos, I feed at night and remove any leftovers in the morning.
Good luck and kick some snail butt.

thanks i usually find that these little rams horns are easy to vacuum up you just have to agitate them abit then they get sucked up!!

i was thinking of getting rid of this piece of java fern and maybe bleach it? there is some eggs on the wood but thats where one of my L104 like to hid during the day and sometimes my L397

like you i feed at night. i feed them cucumber and sometimes some wafers
the only problem about feeding them is that they only eat broccoli or cukes. and they generally eat the skin and the soft middle are but not hte hard meat on the cucumber same goes with the broccoli

[sidguppy]

I'm gonna point out some things that you guys missed:

#1: these are NOT snail eggs

#2; the eggs are all fungused and hence not viable

before you start to eradicate something wich isn't connected to the problem or start using nasty chemicals that aren't needed anyway

[DJ-don]

I'm gonna point out some things that you guys missed:

#1: these are NOT snail eggs

#2; the eggs are all fungused and hence not viable

before you start to eradicate something wich isn't connected to the problem or start using nasty chemicals that aren't needed anyway

thanks sid
these eggs have been on the plant for quite some time though so that must explain that!

[L number Banana]

Sidguppy wrote:

before you start to eradicate something wich isn't connected to the problem or start using nasty chemicals that aren't needed anyway

My little blurb was NOT promoting snail-bombs, anyone who's read my posts knows that I would never recommend nasty things like that and I did mention that the chemicals and cats DON"T MIX. Please reread my post.

And you may think they are something else but don't get snippy when I think they LOOK like snail eggs to me. We're all entitled to our opinion. If it's fungus, I suppose I was looking at the little spores inside and thought they looked exactly like the blobs of snail eggs I had all over my plants at one time. My advice still stands if they're snail eggs, clean up food, feed less. AND it not bad advice regardless.

For sidguppy:

Hi Sidguppy What are the blobs and how should Dj-don get rid of them? Do you think they were eggs of something else in the tank and have fungused over? Should the blobs be left there or should they be vacuumed up before they make the water nasty? Could they be fungused food pellets?

Hugs from Canada

[apistomaster]

They are not likely old fish eggs based on what you are keeping, I think it's safe to say.
The blobs do look much like multiple snail egg cases mostly empty.
I wouldn't rule out these as bits of the decayed vegetables you have used as food. The zucchini types often decay into small gelatinous globules which get hung up in the plants.
The fern will withstand a dilute water with bleach solution and I would also dip the wood in a strong bleach solution. Your pleco would only a experience brief inconvenience.
In the future set a shorter time you will allow the veggies to stay in the tank. There is a balance between allowing veggies to soften enough for fish to each and the point at which the veggies disintegrate.

[DJ-don]

but is this "fungus" dangerous?

i dont generally use bleachign and i dont know any product which would do the job and i dont know really how to bleach anything

[L number Banana]

Hi Dj-don,
I *think* what Apistomaster is referring to is giving your plants and wood a bleach bath. I've done that before by using a 10% bleach solution and swishing your plant around in it for a minute or so. Then rinse the daylights out of the plant before you put it back into your tank. REALLY rinse it, it's nasty stuff especially for fish. The same bottle of bleach solution can be used over and over, just make sure you mark the jar well since it just looks like water.

Some people here are totally against using bleach so there may be other ideas still to come.

Don't know what fungus might do or if it's harmful? Have you seen anyone nibbling at it or are the blobs totally avoided?

Does it still look the same?

[DJ-don]

Hi Dj-don,
I *think* what Apistomaster is referring to is giving your plants and wood a bleach bath. I've done that before by using a 10% bleach solution and swishing your plant around in it for a minute or so. Then rinse the daylights out of the plant before you put it back into your tank. REALLY rinse it, it's nasty stuff especially for fish. The same bottle of bleach solution can be used over and over, just make sure you mark the jar well since it just looks like water.

Some people here are totally against using bleach so there may be other ideas still to come.

Don't know what fungus might do or if it's harmful? Have you seen anyone nibbling at it or are the blobs totally avoided?

Does it still look the same?

i know what larry meant in his post

its just i think something might go wrong and i dont know what bleach is suitable or not

the fungus on the wood has disappeared but there is some now on the ambulia and still on the fern

[apistomaster]

Plain household bleach, non-scented type, is what I use.
For wood you can use it straight or half and half as long as you rinse it well and then soak it in a plain water with a triple dose of Prime for couple hours. I have never had any losses caused by bleach poisoning using it this strong.
However, with plants I am much more cautious. That fern can take a fairly strong solution but I think a couple tbs per gal would clean it up without any harm. Rinse in water with a dechor like Prime after you do a rinse under running water.

[sidguppy]

just for your understanding, it was bleach that I was referring to with nasty chemicals.

bleaching live plants and bogwood because of a few already dead eggs?it's like bringing out the hauwitzers because there's a bug on the windowpane
totally over the top.


these are NOT the regular snail eggs

there are 3 to 5 genera of snails common in tanks

Planorbis (Ramshorns)


Melanoides (Trumpetsnail, MTS or Burrowing Snail)


Pomacea (Applesnail)


Physa (Pondsnail, Tadpole Snail)


Lymnea (Large Pondsnail)


the eggs of Planorbis are in a flat, most round or oval package of jelly and often against the glass or against the underside of leaves


the Trumpetsnail is a livebearing species that does not lay eggs

Applesnails lay their eggs above water and the eggs are yellow, pink or orange


Physa eggs are very small, hard to see and also in a flat package on the underside of leaves


Lymnea are rare in tropical tanks and their eggs are in a large sausage shaped mass


other snail species that occur in tanks are the tiny Acroloxus wich lays eggs you can only see with a microscope (the animal itself is only 2-3mm) and the slightly larger but still very small clockspring snail wich looks like a miniature Ramshorn that has been flattened; this animal too is only a few mm and the young and eggs are minuscule

whatever lays these eggs in this tank has scattered them all over. they're everywhere.
I suspect a fish rather than a snail.

there's another pointer: snaileggs rarely fungus if at all. the slime mould covering the eggs works as a fungicide, enabling snails to breed in even the most polluted water

they solved the egg-fungus issue the same way Auchenipterid catfishes did: by using a strong jelly-like slime coat.
in some species (Planorbis, Physa), the coat is very strong and feels more like rubber than like slime; it's almost impossible to get Planorbis egg packages off a plant without harming it.

the eggs in the pictures on top are clearly done for. all grey and fuzzy. typical of fish eggs not of snail eggs.

I must admit, they also look a fair bit like amphibian eggs.....you don't keep Axolotls in there, do you?

[DJ-don]

i've seen axolotyl eggs before. they are very big and round and you can even see the fry develop in the eggs

the only fish in there are plecos and most of them are too young to even breed except my L104

and the slightly larger but still very small clockspring snail wich looks like a miniature Ramshorn that has been flattened; this animal too is only a few mm and the young and eggs are minuscule

these are the snails in my tank

i got the fern last december at our fish club and there was nothing on the leaves when i got them. only started showing up in feb

[L number Banana]

Sidguppy wrote:

just for your understanding, it was bleach that I was referring to with nasty chemicals. bleaching live plants and bogwood because of a few already dead eggs?it's like bringing out the hauwitzers because there's a bug on the windowpane
totally over the top.

Aha, sorry I bit off your virtual head, thwack me with the stump. I figured the 'nasty chemical' was a reference to the snail bomb since it was the only chemical mentioned. If they were like the snails I had, they were not 'a few', try a 'few hundred' after they laid eggs like that.

MatsP, Jools:
Those pictures etc are really good, maybe they warrant inclusion into the FAQ type page you two were talking about updating? I'm sure this would fall under a common problem/question. "Eek, there's snails in my tank, what do I do?"

I'll see if I can get a picture of the snails that I was referring to. They're really common in NA and multiply like those first pictures Dj-don put up. It's a physa type and they come in with just about every plant purchase. Same shape as the Physa in Sidguppy's post but brown or black.

[apistomaster]

Here! Here!. I too wanted to compliment you Sid for presenting a great selection of good photos that would make great references.

I very rarely bleach except the new wood I collect along river side pools and sometimes I leave my lights on for a week and or two and my Anubias plants get a thick coat of algae bush nose won't eat. I only dip them for a couple minutes then rinse and put them back in the tanks. I am more cautious about not including dechlorinating them in my advice to others.

So true, if only we had a few snails. Their numbers grow large and the Malaysian Trumpet Snails shells are very hard and resistant to dissolving so they can really accumulate over time into unsightly piles. This happens in some of my long term grow out tanks. In some tanks there are fish like wild Bettas or even when I grow out a lot of Sturisoma fry where they seem to eat many young snails or starve them out as superior competitors.

[2wheelsx2]

I don't understand the irrational fear of bleach. We use it in the laundry, and of course it's in your drinking water. It's just chlorine. As long as you don't go crazy with it, it's no more dangerous than using vinegar. If you get vinegar in your eye, it can cause just as damage as dilute bleach. A one minute bleach dip in a 10% solution is not going to destroy the whole world as we know it. What do you think is used for disinfection at chicken processing plants, etc. I was a janitor in my teens and we used raw bleach (with rubber gloves of course) all the time.

[apistomaster]

Exactly.
Bleach does constitute a hazardous material but it is safe enough to be be used as a food disinfectant by the US FDA.
It is not a panacea for all weird aquarium problems but I use it to sterilize old substrate of snails in containers out doors and allow enough time for natural processes of decay to denitrify it before reuse.
I use it to regenerate the organic scavenging media, SeaChem's Purigen. It can be used to make decapsulated Artemia cysts t ofeed small fish and fry without bothering to hatch the cyst.
It is a versatile fish room chemical. Household bleach is actually a very weak solution of 3 to 6% of free chlorine which we further dilute 50% less and down to as little as 5% from the solution in the jugs off the shelf. It makes a great disinfectant of accessories and aquariums being cleaned at an unbeatable bargain price.
It can be use much like potassium permanganate as a non-staining disinfectant and is probably the best chemical to use to clean filter tubing and hoses.

[2wheelsx2]

Good points Larry. And I forgot that every time you go swimming in a pool, you're dipping yourself in a bleach solution. And if you use hot tubs, it's even worse, as Bromine is used. So don't fear the bleach.

[apistomaster]

Yep, you are right.
But everyone please do remember never to combine bleach with cleaning ammonia or you will produce chemicals hazardous to you and your fishes health.

[Bas Pels]

I don't understand the irrational fear of bleach. We use it in the laundry, and of course it's in your drinking water. It's just chlorine. As long as you don't go crazy with it, it's no more dangerous than using vinegar. If you get vinegar in your eye, it can cause just as damage as dilute bleach. A one minute bleach dip in a 10% solution is not going to destroy the whole world as we know it. What do you think is used for disinfection at chicken processing plants, etc. I was a janitor in my teens and we used raw bleach (with rubber gloves of course) all the time.

You may consider me dumb, or irrational, but I will never use bleach. Not for cleaning purrposes, not for desinfecting, never.

I once fired a cleaner who took her own bleach with her, because I did not have the stuff. On the spot

Bleach, the active compund is Natrium hypochlorite, is a compound which oxidizes organic matter - and as a result the compound gets some chlorine atoms attached. Many organo-chlorine compounds are highly toxic

Further this stuff is very basic - and with acids it reacts to produce clorine - the greenish gas which suffocates. This reaction goes rapid, and at pH = 7 does produce a lot of chlorine gas - dissolved

Here, in the Netherlands, it is, further, illegal to desinfect meat with bleach - and I think it is the same in other countries, being a result of European legislation

Irrational fear of bleach? I graduated in chemistry, and as with more chemicals, I know what it is, I think it is not something to have in ones house

[2wheelsx2]

Thanks for the chemistry 101 lesson. I also have a degree (in Engineering) and have working in geology for 20+ years and I know what bleach is. I use it to bleach lichen off rocks in the field for detailed examination. Like I said, I use it to wash my clothes and disinfect my kitchen counters. And I go swimming in public pools which use chlorine. But I don't use hot tubs because they use bromine. And I don't think I said people use it to disinfect meat, but rather, the utensils and the equipment. Bleach is harmless in low concentrations because chlorine evaporates as it's naturally in a gas state, but then you know this with your chemistry degree. Otherwise, they wouldn't use chlorine in our drinking water. I can't afford to buy fancy bottled water to drink, so I drink tap water....with chlorine in it.

[apistomaster]

To quote Grace Slick, the former lead singer of The Jefferson Airplane, My feelings run like this;
"I don't care if there are chemicals in it as long as my lettuce is crisp".

[sidguppy]

some people here make the HUGE mistake of equating the resistance to chemicals of a 150 pound westernized human with a pristine tropical fish from the rainforest that has a mass of just a few grams......

wich if you pardon my French is pretty dumb

"we" also smoke tobacco wich contains nicotine; it doesn't kill us.
"we" use all kinds of nasty turpentine based paints in our houses, but we don't die from the fumes when it dies
"we" drive cars and sniff an awful lot of gasoline fumes everytime we fill it up

want to test that on your fish, because the resistance of a fish is equal to that of a human being?

I dare @wheels & Apistomaster to toss in a single roll-up cigarette in one of their fishtanks
actually it's a theoretical experiment

the next day ALL your fish will be as dead as last weeks' mutton!

same for painting that door. you try painting a door with turpentine-containing paint in a room with fish tanks; keep the windows closed, see what it'll do with your pets......


humans, especially westernized humans, qualify as live walking toxic waste. we are incredible resistant to massive loads of pollution. medications, drugs, car fumes, industrial pollution, messed up food with all kinds of nasty add-ons; we go on and on.
and only die of some if we keep up the bad habit of abusing for decades

for example, no one will die of a single sigarette, but it can and does eradicate a whole fishtank and quite a large one at that.

we are tough as an old boot and by now used to harmful substances
tropical fish are not!

next to that; mammals are different from fish. a LOT
aquatic life is much more fragile and easily killed by stuff that wouldn't faze insects or mammals at all.

Bas has followed a study in chemistry, he knows his stuff
I have followed a study in biology and I DO know a lot about animal physiology, especially those of primair aquatic animals
like fish. they are completely different from our physiology and chemistry in a lot of ways.

there's a lot of things that are specifically dangerousd for aquatic life, including fish.
among the most lethal are hydro-carbons of the turpentine family, nicotine, heavy metallic solutions and bleach.

[apistomaster]

Glad I didn't recommend using trichlorethylene.
Not a professional biochemist but I did get A's in chemistry, biology, botany and organic chem but organic chem was hard for me.
I do know a lot of ways of denaturing proteins.