Baby Snail Identification

[Tobin VP]

For the past two weeks I have noticed the development of 60-70 small white (sometimes redish) formations on my Invert QT tank glass. They appear to the naked eye to possibly be baby snails. They are attached pretty securely and are about 1 mm in size. I currently have Astraea, Nassarius Vibex, Florida Cerith, and Dwarf Cerith.

Below is a picture of them on the glass and two pictures that I took under the microscope at 40X magnification.

1. Can anyone affirm that this is indeed a baby snail?

2. Does anyone have any idea what kind of baby snail this is? (Astraea, Nassarius Vibex, Florida Cerith, or Dwarf Cerith)

3. How long will it take for them to develop?

4. If they are scraped from the glass will they reattach in the sand bed and still develop?

Thanks for any help.

 

[Timfish]

Cool! Do you see them moving around very much? Tiny limpets might be another possibility but it does seem more reasonable they are juveniles of one the the snail species you listed.

 

[Tobin VP]

They don't appear to move much. The group stays in the same area on the glass. But over the last week the numbers have really been increasing and I have them on every glass surface. I will take a couple of photos over time to see if I can spot movement.

Some are in high flow areas. They have a pretty good hold on the glass and flutter around quite a bit. To get the specimen off the glass that I put under the microscope I had to scrape a little bit to remove it.