Couple of questions on inverts reproducing

I have two situations with inverabrate spawning in my tank.

It's a relatively new tank, 2 months old. Two chromis, and a substantial clean up crew, snails, hermit crabs, emerald crab, peppermint shrimp, cleaner shrimp and brittle stars (one in DT one in fuge)

Item 1:
On the plastic overflow wall on the back of my tank I get hundreds of small white dots. I am assuming these are snail eggs. I typically just scrape them down once a week or so. My question is: Should I just leave them? Will they ever become larger snails. I don't see the chromis mess with them at all. I also speculate that this will cease once I start to get good algae on the back of the tank.


Item 2:
I purchased quite a few peppermint shrimp for my tank. 6 total. I put four in my DT and two in my fuge. I just happened to notice some Aptasia in the fuge when I added them, and that's since gone. Win. There isn't much in the fuge for them to eat, so I occasionally add fresh food or small pellets for them to eat. Tonight I noticed the larger one had a clutch of eggs under her abdomen. She looked HUGE by comparison to the other shrimp.

She's in the fuge and if she does lay the eggs and they hatch they will be safe from predation, I think. Right now my QT is being used for some new fish and is full of copper, so I know I cant put her in there. Would the fuge truly be a place of refuge for these small shrimp and I can just let them grow in there?

There are plenty of low flow places for her to lay her brood and sponges to prevent things from going over the overflow to the return area. I know that works well. Tonight I cleaned out that sponge and there must have been 100 pods in there swimming around the wc tank water. I netted them up and added some to my DT for the chromis to snack on and hopefully take root, and the others I returned to the fuge. I dont know the size of the small shrimp but hopefully that would give them harbor if they where carried up there by the current.

Thoughts?

 

Item 1: I also have a lot of "snail eggs" on the back of my tank, and on the glass of my corner overflow. However, if you look more closely, they're most likely actual tiny snails (which is what they are in my tank). You're able to tell whether it's an egg or a snail by seeing if it's spiral-shaped. If it's a spiral, it's a snail; you can also see little antennae on them. Usually eggs are even smaller, and in clusters.

I had started out with about 11 "loonie"-sized snails, and now have about 40 extra ones that are about the size of the head of a thumb-tack. However, regarding the dozens, or hundreds, of tiny snails and eggs, I am letting them live until/unless I find they overpopulate the tank. IMO, it's safe to let them live, even if there are a lot of them, because they clean the rocks/glass, etc, and will just die off if there isn't enough to eat (which is good for hermit crabs in need of shells!).

Item 2: I'm no expert on the matter, but your shrimp should be safe in the refugium, provided there isn't anything in there that will eat them (fish, etc.). However, I'm not familiar with the peppermint shrimp breeding habits; so it may be a case where a parent eats the young; I have no idea. I suggest looking it up, or waiting for a more experienced reefer to chime in.

Best of luck to you! Subscribed to the thread

 

I agree with /\ on #1; leave the white dots alone Your snail population will get itself to where it needs to be over time. #2 I am not sure of. They would be fish food for sure in the DT!

 

It depends on the type of snail, IME...some will reproduce and the eggs hatch, others, the eggs will be eaten or simply decompose.

As for the pep nauplii, they'll become fish food. It's very hard to raise them from nauplii to adults, and you really need to be set up to do this.

Here's what they look like tho: