Tank is 5.5 gallons, heated to 78°f, 1 female betta and 2 assassin snails (just added tonight to take care of some pest snails). I tried using google image to find what these egg sack looking things are and it said lacewigs as a potentional reason but could these also be from the pest snails (Ramshorn and bladder)?
Additional photo of one of the snails in the comments! There’s a couple of them actively on one of the arachnis that has these egg sacks.
Posted by _Nyxalie_
3 Comments
https://preview.redd.it/p601gd2k78yg1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ff47cf1926ba0464212b15922d7d947fd58df80f
Good lord those are some frisky snails. I’ve never seen that many egg blobs that big at once
Definitely not snail eggs, those look like tiny flat transparent discs with tinys dots in the middle.
Pretty sure it’s vorticella, they’re little single celled pest organisms and usually propagate when there’s excess nitrate in the water. They can definitely overpopulate and harm your tank, I had a case of these last year that were attached to my neocaradinas. I ended up treating the whole tank with hydrogen peroxide and Ich-X. I went conservative with the dose for the hydrogen peroxide but I think it definitely helped, just be cautious if you go that route on dosing. It basically dissolves the vorticella, all my shrimp and snails were fine though. Turn off all your filters and pumps before you add it in, as it can mess with your good bacteria. I measured 1.5mL/gallon of a 3% peroxide solution, mixed with dechlorinated water in a small container, then added it into the tank and gently swirled it around. After letting it sit for 15-20 minutes, it all gets converted into water and oxygen bubbles. You can see the vorticella bubble at that stage. Then you can just turn the filters back on as normal. That alone could be enough to kill it back, but you have to repeat the treatment after a day or two to make sure you get all the free swimming guys in the water column. If that doesn’t work after a few treatments, you can move onto Ich-X. I was in a hurry to get my neos some relief so I doubled down with meds, but if you’re only seeing it on your plants you might be able to get it under control without it. Good luck!