OK, who's the culprit now??

[chrisinha]

Some time ago I posted that I had found eggs in my community tank and I thought they were albino cories eggs. It turned out that because I wasnt sure if I had introduced some snails to the tank when I added a driftwood, well, I decided to get rid of the eggs

Now, this is a different tank. It's a 10 gallon tank with 1 Betta, 2 cories polystictus (sp?) 1 apple snail and 2 otocinclus. I was looking for one of the otos when I saw some eggs attached to the fake plant's leaves. These are actually larger than the eggs I'd found in the other tank a month ago. They are the size of a goldfish's eye!! Transparent. But there some kinda a "web" hanging from them

As far as I know apple snails need actually to be in pairs to reproduce and I just have a single one. I've noticed that the Otos are fat... What do you guys think???
And what should I do??

[chrisinha]

Ok, I was doing some search on the web and found some pictures of cories' eggs and they look exactly like what i have in my tank... unless they are oto's eggs. i couldnt find any pic of it. anyways, i dont know if they've been fertilized. i have hard water, my pH is 7.5 and i cant believe that out of only TWO cories, one is male and one is female!! i've also "heard" that you need at least 2 males to acually breed...
also, the "web" i talked about... could it be fungus?? could they have "fungusized"?

please, what should i do?

[chrisinha]

Hmm no help here at all???

Pictures



with flash



no flash again

[macquatic]

Certainly look like Cory eggs, a bit big for Otocinclus.
They look fine, no fungus (yet!). I'd remove the eggs to a 2ltr ice cream tub in about 40mm of tank water, add an airstone and float the tub in the tank they came from. I usually add some Java Moss too, helps keep the water "sweet". As this seems to be their first spawning I'd add a drip of Meth Blue to stop fungusing. I usually find first spawns are more prone to problems when the male(s) fail to fertilise all the eggs.

And regardless of what you read on the web, 1 male and 1 female can reproduce (as you've found out!) altough it's usually better to have extra males.

Let us know how you get on. Mac.

[chrisinha]

thanks mac!

how can i know if the eggs WERE fertilized?? They look clear. And do you have a picture or maybe a link on web so that i can see what's the ice cream tub looks like??

EDIT: i guess i found pictures of the ice cream tub you're talking about... the hard part will be to find somethig in liters in this country
anyways, i'll keep you posted

thanks once again!

[macquatic]

Fertilised eggs will turn a light tan colour with a darker nucleus and hatch in 3-5 days depending on temperature.

Any plastic container will do as long as it will float with the water (and eggs) in it. In the UK 2ltr (about 2 quarts in the US) tubs measure approx. 9"x6"x3" deep. Mac.

[shammonds]

Wow... that's a lot of eggs in a small space. At a glance I'd say that's around 40-50 eggs and all in good condition. My paleatus tend to spread theirs out a lot more, and I just have a pair too (which spawned unexpectedly in my 10gal).

If you don't have a spare pump and airstone, you can also try to hatch the eggs in a floating "breeding net", which is just a rectangular frame inside a fine mesh bag. This allows the eggs do develop and hatch i the same water they were laid in. The advantages with this setup are that you don't need to worry about the water quality and you don't need any extra equipment.

The disadvangates are that you can't keep your Meth blue contained (it isn't essential, but you'll hatch way more fry with it), and you're still going to need to find somewhere to grow the little guys out once they start feeding. Check the sticky-post at the top of this forum list for some really good advice on raising the fry.

Good luck, and keep us posted!

[Coryman]

To be honest I am not sure they are Cory eggs, they look a little large to me and there are only a few species that I know that lay all their egg in one place and C. polystictus is not one of them. Are the eggs firm to the touch and sticky. I'm erring towards the snail.

Ian

[mummymonkey]

The apple snails I had layed their eggs in a honeycomb structure above the water. They do look odd for Cory eggs though.

[chrisinha]

hmm... if they're apple snail eggs, should i still put methilene blue and put them in a separate container floating in the tank? i removed the snail to another tank

EDIT: I guess you're right Coryman I looked for information on applesnail.net and I'm pretty sure they are snail eggs now! I actually have a Marisa Cornuarietis


here's the info:

Eggs: Laid below the water surface on the vegetation, packed in a gelatinous clutch. The size of the eggs is about 2 to 3 mm when deposited.
The eggs are visible as small white spots inside the transparant gelatinous mass that surrounds them.
During the development of the little snails, the eggs swell considerable (up to 4 mm). They also become more transparant and the little snails become visible as little spots attached at the inside wall of each egg.


Eggs in gelatinous mass, Marisa cornuarietis, 2 days old.
After 10 days: the eggs have increased in size. The little snails are attached to the walls of each egg.
The young Marisa cornuarietis snails already walk inside the eggs days before hatching (here at 10 days).
Note that the movie plays at 5x speed.

source: http://www.applesnail.net

[chrisinha]

ACK!

Im going to have a snail infestation!!

[Coryman]

Unlike other snails, apple snails are a sellable item and worth raising, well they are here in the uk.

Ian