Random Ramshorns?

[black_sun]

Okay, I'm used to Ramshorns showing up in my tanks because I can never seem to buy plants that don't have little hitchhikers in them. However, I recently (a few weeks ago) set up a new tank and today I noticed a bunch of Ramshorns in that tank. I haven't added plants to this tank, so I'm not sure how they got there.

I may have had plants in the tank in the past (I don't remember), if there were snails in there before could the eggs have survived being dry and hatched when they were wet again? Otherwise, I have no idea how they got there. Any ideas?

 

[pik01]

how long would these eggs have been dry? I sure hope those eggs can't survive drying out

 

[black_sun]

3-4 weeks. I don't know, it didn't seem like a plausible idea to me (but then again, I don't know much about snail reproduction so I was throwing it out there) but I couldn't think of any other way they would have gotten in the tank (save literally crawling out of one and into another, in which case they'd be cat snacks, as nothing moves near my cat and lives lol).

 

[pik01]

hmm, 3-4 weeks should have finished off any clutches, methinks. What else is in the tank, could they have smuggled themselves in on decor or gravel? They love laying clutches right on the heaters or filters if youre transferring them over.

 

[black_sun]

Well, most of the decor was already in the tank, dry as well (gravel, rocks, pvc pipe). I have some new heaters, but unless they came with clutches in the box that shouldn't be the source either. Hmm, will snails lay clutches on living things? I set up this tank again to upgrade a pair of crays... maybe something was on them and came to the new tank?

 

[pik01]

idk, i've never had crays before. I see them laying clutches on ramshorn shells all the time, though, so they're not picky about surfaces.

 

[vampie]

Any chance you were working on another tank before working on the current one? There's always a chance one just hitched onto your arm/algae scraper/whatever and dropped into the new tank.

 

[black_sun]

Maybe, I use the same scrubber for all my tanks. Though, you'd think I'd see a snail hitchhiking on it or that the brush would smush any eggs, but that seems more likely than my other ideas.