How to avoid nerite snail eggs?

[martinmin]

I added a few nerite snail to tanks and then I saw white spots on glass and wood. I searched and learnt that they are nerite snail's eggs. They are hard to remove. When I purchased them, there is no option of male or female snails.

Ideally, I would only want male snails.  Is there a way to prevent snail's eggs?

 

[Lennie]

The only option is getting males really.

And sexing them is hard. You gotta check the fol around the eye. No way a store can really sex them into two different tank. It is like mission impossible for so many snails.

You can sex them like this:

 

Or, another option is, if your LFS accepts them back, you can try one by one and return any females, until you get a male

[martinmin]

On 6/9/2023 at 12:40 AM, Lennie said:

The only option is getting males really.

And sexing them is hard. You gotta check the fol around the eye. No way a store can really sex them into two different tank. It is like mission impossible for so many snails.

You can sex them like this:

 

Or, another option is, if your LFS accepts them back, you can try one by one and return any females, until you get a male

When they lay eggs, does it mean in my tank it has both male and female, or female only can also produce eggs?

Thanks 

[Lennie]

On 6/9/2023 at 10:53 AM, martinmin said:

When they lay eggs, does it mean in my tank it has both male and female, or female only can also produce eggs?

It does not mean anything in my experience. They don't breed in freshwater. Yet they  can mate and lay eggs around.

 

I have one female in my betta tank that lays eggs and shes alone, so

[Lennie]

On 6/9/2023 at 1:19 PM, Pepere said:

On a related question, what happens to Nerite snail eggs if you just leave them?

Do they eventually disappear or fade away?  Or do they leave long lasting marks where they were attached?

I frequently have egg masses left by my Cories, but they disappear as the fry hatch within a few days…

They remain there literally stuck. They are very hardy, unlike normal fish eggs.

I had to scrape 1.5 year old eggs while taking one of my tanks down and it wa still quite hard as they lay in hard to reach spots very commonly

Couldn't clean them all myself, even after boiling the driftwood again

[Lennie]

On 6/9/2023 at 2:36 PM, Pepere said:

Well, that would be reason enough for me to never get a Nerite snail personally.

Tbh, very understandable.

Also, as far as I know, the only unique algae type they eat which other algae eaters don't is green spot algae. 

Ive been keeping different horned nerites and zebras. I personally think they are not really good at making an obvious difference on any algae really. 

I'd rather clean the glasses by myself, and in my experience, they barely make any difference on green spots on the plants.

They also dont clean up any extra food or so. But they are natural grazers, so basically 0 effort to keep them going as long as your tank is established and your water has calcium/ good amount of hardness/ high ph.

Also they are wildcaught and I have no clue how much this affects their nature.

[redfish]

On 6/9/2023 at 6:36 AM, Pepere said:

Well, that would be reason enough for me to never get a Nerite snail personally.

I understand.  I've been fortunate with the ones we have that they have not laid eggs yet.  I do see them eating algae all the time.

 

On 6/9/2023 at 7:37 AM, Pepere said:

I agree. I am perfectly fine cleaning my glass and rocks and driftwood of algae.

I actually dont mind algae growing on those surfaces either. If the Algae stayed off of my plants I would be fine…

Yep, just stay off my plants and I can deal with it!

[John Henry]

I had to use steel wool to remove the Nerite eggs from my rocks.