Parasites on my snails?

[camaronqueseduerme]

Hello everyone

I have noticed these white things on many of my snails' shells. They look like certain pests you see in plants. Anybody knows what they are and whether I should be concerned? The snails seem to be alright, in fact their reproduction rate is so humongous that I have culled the population a couple of times by now, but I am afraid I might have some parasite invasion happening.

Thanks!

[JennyPenny]

Do you have nerite snails this tank? They look like nerite snail eggs to me. My nerites love to lay their eggs on other snail's shells.
If you don't have nerites then I'm not sure. Do you ever see the spots move?

[camaronqueseduerme]

Thanks, Jenny. I have indeed one single horned Nerite snail. I was afraid it might be some nasty pest, it will be a relief if it's just eggs Since my Nerite is alone and celibate I guess those eggs are not fertilized anyways?

[JennyPenny]

I don't know if the eggs are fertilized or not, but the babies usually hatch and then die. They need full strength seawater to survive when they first hatch. Kind of sad!

[JennyPenny]

Snails can be freaky little things. I think some can self fertilize, and some can store sperm. I tend to think these eggs are viable.

[Mustafa]

Yeah, those are most likely nerite eggs. And no, they're not fertilized. Nerites need both genders to reproduce.