Do I have to be worried?

[abirozy]

Hello

I have a 28G JBJ LED. I have about 20lbs live rock, 30lbs live sand, two clowns, 1 fire fish, 1 yellow tail damsel, 10new nerite snails, 10 new cerinth snails and about 5 bumblebee snails. I recently had a diatom bloom, but in the 3 days that the snails have been there, they have cleaned a lot.

QUESTION:

As shown in the pics, I noticed some very pronounced white spots on one of my pieces of live rock. In the pic, it is on the bottom center, just under the overhang. The rock has a dark purple coraline in that spot, and although I have not touched the spots, they appear to be somewhat 3 dimensional, and not just coloring. It is POSSIBLE they have been there all along, but I can't believe I have not noticed them before.

1) Am I in trouble?
2) Does anyone know what these are? They all appear uniform in size and shape, and are VERY white? Could they be worm eggs of some sort? Maybe snail eggs (not from the cerinth, I know they lay on the glass)

Any help is appreciated. Hopefully I am being paranoid. The first pic is an overall shot from the rock. The second pic is a close up of the same rock to show the spots.

 

[Pete polyp]

A better picture would help.

 

[jasonp87]

It's hard to tell from the pic. It could be just about anything. I get little inverts with white shells that grow on everything, they don't hurt anything. They don't move. It's probably just a byproduct of the life in your live rock.

 

[Tahoe61]

nerite eggs

 

[Reefing Madness]

Possibly Pileolaria

Do they look like the ones in this Thread?
https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/marine-plants-algae-ids-welcome/152330-id-please.html

 

[Mike J.]

nerite eggs

Yup, most likely.

 

[ksigaekdb]

nerite eggs

+1 on this. I have tons of these which will hatch in 3-4 weeks and new ones will pop up. After 60 days or so check out your take at night with your flashlight and you will see tiny snails all over your rock.

 

[abirozy]

Thanks everyone for the advice. This site has been a wonderful tool for a new hobbyist. Ksigaekdb, do I have to do anything to allow the snails to grow and not get eaten or will that happen on its own? I don't need more snails, so don't want to go through too much trouble, but it is always cool.

 

[ksigaekdb]

Thanks everyone for the advice. This site has been a wonderful tool for a new hobbyist. Ksigaekdb, do I have to do anything to allow the snails to grow and not get eaten or will that happen on its own? I don't need more snails, so don't want to go through too much trouble, but it is always cool.

As long as your parameters stay good they should hatch on their own. Hopefully your little guys will just grow up to replace the adults you lose, my snail population has stayed pretty consistent despite losing 3 or 4 a month. Nerites fall on their back constantly, and if I don't flip them over fast enough my team of wrasses make short work of their delicious filling. The ones that become lunch have just been replaced by the little ones that make it to adulthood. My wrasses will eat the babies when they are small, but they only really come out at night so the fish are in bed already and don't decimate the population.