Egg Mass?

[wwest]

I'm not sure if these are egg mass or o2 exchange. This is the best picture i can get for right now and im setting up alittle 5 gallon tank to pull some out and check them out. Any ideas?

One of the reason why i think they are an egg mass is because they are in a snail path that matches on the glass.

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s194/iReef/snail/snaillarvae.jpg

[BrianPlankis]

Wes,

That looks a LOT like a DIBS Turbo egg mass to me! Congrats!

Brian

[wwest]

That would be cool :)

OK now that they have laid do i pull them out and feed them pytho or do i just leaving them in and still feed pytho?

FYI, I have 3 of those on my back glass. That one is the biggest then one smaller and then the smallests. Kinda like they were running out of steam lol

[BrianPlankis]

That would be cool :)

OK now that they have laid do i pull them out and feed them pytho or do i just leaving them in and still feed pytho?

FYI, I have 3 of those on my back glass. That one is the biggest then one smaller and then the smallests. Kinda like they were running out of steam lol

No need to feed phyto for DIBS Turbo eggs, the egg mass contains direct developing larvae that will crawl out as tiny snails and start feeding on the algae and diatoms on the glass. They will not feed on the phyto, but instead benefit from higher nutrient levels in a tank. You can increase feeding food to your fish or corals so that the overall nutrient levels in your tank go up, increasing the growth of diatoms and algae.

It appears that the DIBS Turbos mature quite early and begin laying egg masses when they are about 3/4" the size of a dime. When they are smaller the egg masses laid are smaller. Your different size egg masses could be from different size snails.

Brian

[jnarowe]

For reference, I just took this shot of an egg mass:

http://home.wavecable.com/~jrowe/snail%20babies%20030407.jpg

[wwest]

Sweet, thanks for the picture. I really wish i could take a better picture but of course they couldn't of laid on the front glass. Ill keep everyone update on any new developments. I think its been a pretty good year for DIBS Turbo's breeding :)

[graveyardworm]

Everyone has DIBS Turbos but me. :( I wish the weather would warm up.

[jnarowe]

My picture isn't so good either. I need to upgrade my camera equipment and grow some talent! :D

[wwest]

OK, well after i finished filling my auto top off and the daylights kicked off (actinics still on ) i decided to check over the tank the best i could. Well to my surprise i see 2 more egg masses in different locations but the same concept. Will my 29 gallon support this many snails?

I'm not 100% sure they are masses, They look just like all the pictures i have seen of DIBS Turbo's. How long do these masses that look the same last in the area we find them in?

[jnarowe]

I just saw a mysid eating some of them!

[BrianPlankis]

OK, well after i finished filling my auto top off and the daylights kicked off (actinics still on ) i decided to check over the tank the best i could. Well to my surprise i see 2 more egg masses in different locations but the same concept. Will my 29 gallon support this many snails?

I'm not 100% sure they are masses, They look just like all the pictures i have seen of DIBS Turbo's. How long do these masses that look the same last in the area we find them in?

They should be egg masses from your first picture. Your 29 will not support even all the babies from a single decent sized egg mass. But it still should support a decent amount of babies. Even my 90 gallon system can only support around 200-400 at a time., so your tank will be about 1/3 of that.

You can increase the number your tank supports by feeding more (causing more algae) and by removing any non-reproducing snails once you can confirm you have babies.

It typically takes 5-7 days for an egg mass to hatch and around 21 days or so after that before you start seeing the tiny baby snails running around.

I'm guessing there are a lot of things that nibble on the egg masses, but I doubt mysid shrimp are a major predator. I have several thousand mysid and my Turbos reproduce just fine. Of course you could have a different species of mysid, so keep an eye on it.

Brian

[wwest]

Cool thanks for the info Brian. The latest 2 egg masses are still there and looking good. The more i look at them i say they are egg masses. The location they are laid in won't let me look threw the magnifing glass.

I do have other good news as well. Tonight i didn't have anything to do ( for once in a few months) and to my happy eyes i see about 20-30 stars. Plus one of these days I'm going to get the ones from work so Brian i might have a shipment for you soon. We have two tanks with probably 50-100 per tank. It might take me a month to harvest them but you'll get them sometime :) lol

[BrianPlankis]

Cool thanks for the info Brian. The latest 2 egg masses are still there and looking good. The more i look at them i say they are egg masses. The location they are laid in won't let me look threw the magnifing glass.

I do have other good news as well. Tonight i didn't have anything to do ( for once in a few months) and to my happy eyes i see about 20-30 stars. Plus one of these days I'm going to get the ones from work so Brian i might have a shipment for you soon. We have two tanks with probably 50-100 per tank. It might take me a month to harvest them but you'll get them sometime :) lol

Good news, but which stars are you referring to? Ophactidae sp #1?

Brian

[wwest]

I think they are Amp #1 actually. I wasn't for sure if you wanted any or not so i thought i would just bring it up :)

[BrianPlankis]

I think they are Amp #1 actually. I wasn't for sure if you wanted any or not so i thought i would just bring it up :)

These guys have done amazingly well in my tank, when I look at my tank at 2AM I could pick 20 off the front glass and another couple hundred off the sandbed :D

But it would be interesting to see a few of them when you have baby DIBS Turbos to send, they could be a different species.

Brian