Nerite Snails

[achase]

Hello All,

So I recently got two zebra nerite snails to combat the algae in my tanks. But now I have all these white eggs (from the snails) all over the place so I was wondering how I can get rid of these?

I did know that they would lay eggs I just didn't think they would be so noticeable....

 

[jamiejay09]

What tank are the eggs in? Nerite snails can only breed in brackish water so unless your water in brackish its not nerite eggs.

 

[bassbonediva]

They can still lay eggs in fresh water, they just won't hatch or be viable unless they're in brackish water.

Take a clean credit card (or other flat piece of plastic) and scrape them off the glass and wherever they are. Viola, clean tank again. Nerite snails are one of the few snails that have males and females (most snail species can be either, or even change gender as needed...nerites are one or the other, they don't switch), so you may have gotten "lucky" and gotten a male and a female.

 

[riseabovethesun]

Any kind of scraper will work, or one of those magnet cleaners (that's what I use). I remember the first time it happened I only saw them on my plants so I freaked out wondering what it was. Now I am always amused because Newman likes to refer to it as a star galaxy, it totally looks like one too!

But they come off WAY easy, even a soft brush that won't scratch your glass will work.

 

[ValRasbora]

if you don't want to use or don't have a credit card then you can purhcase flat pieces of plastic for scraping windshields for about 25-50 cents.

Also if you have more than one tank you can always move one snail to a different tank.

 

[freash_water_monster]

you could get a pleco or i dont know about like a cory cat or a clown loach or any sucker fish would probably not for sure eat them.

 

[freash_water_monster]

if you don't want to use or don't have a credit card then you can purhcase flat pieces of plastic for scraping windshields for about 25-50 cents.

Also if you have more than one tank you can always move one snail to a different tank.

I think that snails can reproduce buy them selfs, i think

 

[Newman]

2 misconceptions from FWM

1. plecos wont eat the eggs, they are way too calcareous and probably not even worth eating for the carnivorous pleco varieties (gold nugget and stuff liek that.)

2. Nerites are gonochoristic. not hemaphroditic.

also a female nerite will lay those eggs regardless of there being a male in the tank or not. I have one female ruby nerite left, she still lays her eggs -_-

 

[achase]

I have separated the two snails but like Newman said they lay eggs regardless.
It's more the eggs on the plants and driftwood that is going to be a problem to remove, but if they are easy to remove then it won't be so bad!!

Thanks for the advice everyone!!

 

[Newman]

oh yea, i dont even bother removing them from my DW and plants. my DW looks almost all white now with thousands of eggs -_-

 

[IThinkTherefore]

I actually was researching Nerites recently and found a fascinating article on them.

This explains with photographs how to tell the difference between males and females, with Olive Nerites at least.

Applesnail.net • View topic - Olive nerite breeding/veliger pics in freshwater

Perhaps you could try to keep an all-male snail tank?