Snails!

Most likely from the plants, it takes a pretty trained eye to find snail eggs on plants. I would hedge my money on pond snails or comon ramshorn rather than the big guys. And Yes snails are awesome IMO. I have them in all of my tanks and enjoy them as much as the fish. Below is an article that RTR wrote which will help you out a lot. The bottom line is that if you don't overfeed the tank and keep it clean the snails won't overproduce, and will help with clean-up.
http://www.aaquaria.com/aquasource/snail.shtml

dave

Here's a pic for ya.

http://www.pandk.org/snail_collection.jpg

These started from one batch of plants from mail order and one batch from the LFS. Of course, there were only one or two to begin with. I was so excited when I saw the first snail in my tank. Sort of like a surprise in the cereal box. Now I'm attached to the darn things. They love wilted lettuce, btw. You can't see the eggs very well under water, but if you take a plant and look at the underside of the leaves, you'll probably see a clear, gel like little blob on its way to becoming a baby snail.

What to feed snails

I was looking around the Internet for information on the temperature range that freshwater snails can tolerate. I came across this article that also talks about food, breeding, etc. The source seems reliable enough.

http://www.science501.com/Cultures/CCFresSnails.html


FOOD - Small amounts of fish food, uncooked oatmeal, lettuce, rabbit food pellets, and carrots (small slices, twice a week).

I've been giving mine a variety of crumbled fish flakes, wilted lettuce and broken up algae tabs. I'm going to try a very little uncooked oatmeal tonight and see how they like it. I don't know about the carrots... anyone ever heard of feeding snails carrot slices cooked or otherwise?

Just for grins

Just for grins I had a little oatmeal left over from dropping a few granuals in my snail bowl, and crumbled a little in my fish tanks. The Platy's and Swords perferred the smaller bites, while the Rasbora's went absolutely ape over it and didn't care about the size of the bites. It was hilarious watching the Rasbora's zipping in and snatching the oatmeal before the other fish and swimming around with this big (for them) piece of oatmeal in their mouths. They munched on it as they swam, refusing to let go, should another fish go after it if dropped. That is the most active I have seen my Rasbora's. They are typically quite docile.

I love having snails in my tanks. So far I haven't had them get out of control too badly. They seem to be a good way to judge whether or not you're overfeeding. I've had the populations of them jump when I changed my feeding habits (trying new foods, etc).

I don't feed mine anything special, but I do see them eating the pleco's treats now and then

I do feed mine a few special things, primarily due to very soft water. I purposefully suplement calcium via Hikari Crab cuisine. I also keep a piece of cuttlebone in each tank for them to graze on. Otherwise it's usually the fish food they eat most often, and of course algea which I don't clean from my breeding tanks at all.
Dave