Small white patch on tank side

[kris walker]

Hi everyone,
A curious all white patch appeared overnight on the back of my glass tank. It is circular, and about the size of a adult dog tick (not the small deer tick). It appears to be flat, but it is hard to say looking directly at it (I haven't touched it). I bought 5 additional snails several days ago, and one of the snails was close to it the night before and the morning after. I know this isn't much to go on, but any ideas as to what it is? Does anyone know how snails breed? Are they egg layers?
sam

 

[mal]

It is probably snail eggs. Look at the spot closely and see if it is spiral shaped. When my snails lay eggs it is in a spiral shape on the glass and white colored. I think snails are asexual and can pretty much reproduce anytime.

 

[kris walker]

Hi Mal,
Thanks for the tip. I now have about 5 of these little white patches all in the same area on a piece of glass covered with a thin layer of cyanobacteria. I cannot get close enough to it to observe any spiral shape you suggest may be there.
Assuming they are snail eggs, how long does it take them to hatch. Also, once they hatch, do they go through a planktonic phase before they start wiping my tank clean of algae? If so, I probably won't be able to keep them alive because I have a box filter.
sam

 

[mal]

To be honest I don't know for sure if mine hatched, I scraped off several spirals when cleaning on accident, the ones I could plainly see anyway. I do have a lot of tiny snails in my tank though, and I haven't bought any new rock for a long time. So hitch hiker snails are less likely. I'm assuming the new tiny ones were born in the tank. I do not know what their developmental stages are, if they eat diatoms off the get go, or have to have filter food or what. I think sea slugs will also make these kinds of deposits as well, just a thought. Let us know what happens.