Temp drop triggers ceriths to spawn?

[kgoldy]

I've been running my tank at 81 degrees since I set it up, then recently decided to drop it to 79-80. 24 hours later there are egg trails EVERYWHERE in my tank- I see the Florida Ceriths laying them all over the place. This has been going on for about a week now- before then, I hadn't seen any eggs laid at all.

 

Do you think it was the temp drop- or does something else trigger Florida Ceriths to lay eggs like crazy?

 

And is there anything that actually eats the eggs? I've brushed them off the glass, but all of my fish taste, and immediately spit the eggs out. So far I've seen my coral beauty, algae blenny, midas blenny, firefish, clowns, and blue spotted jawfish all try and spit out the floating eggs. I haven't noticed my green mandarins going near the eggs, but figure if they learn to eat em, the mandarins are going to get seriously fat.

[johnmaloney]

It is that time of year for them, my tanks look like that too

[carbon-mantis]

Haha, both my Ceriths and Nerites have been laying eggs all over the rocks lately. Free munchies for the inverts.

[JBM]

why would you want to get rid of free snails? eventually old ones will die & the little ones will grow to be big ones. let em live, i have plenty of babies running around my tank. it's kinda funny

[johnmaloney]

they have a prolonged larval stage and just become food naturally

[ednangel]

Hey John question:

 

It this statement true for all ceriths? I have the dwarf variety and they are everywhere, they more than double the population in about 7-8 months.

[kgoldy]

why would you want to get rid of free snails?

 

125 ceriths laying eggs on glass = I can't see my fish.

[bensanders]

Hatch those little bastards and put John outta business!

 

 

 

 

 

joke

[mmcguffi]

Interesting, my laid eggs on the glass for the first time too. I wonder how they know what time of the year it is since we control their light cycle?

[johnmaloney]

Hey John question:

 

It this statement true for all ceriths? I have the dwarf variety and they are everywhere, they more than double the population in about 7-8 months.

 

 

they seem to breed year round, or do at least when the temperature is under normal conditions.

i would bet it either has something to do with the tides/moon; inverts seem to have a very keen sense of what the moon is up to on any given day despite being pretty much blind

[bensanders]

All of my mushrooms put out little shroomlettes at the same time too. I lengthen my light schedule in the summer and cut it back in the winter, I think that does it for the shrooms at least

[johnmaloney]

my brother's head has the gravitational pull of the moon, I should run experiments

[kgoldy]

my brother's head has the gravitational pull of the moon, I should run experiments

 

 

"Guess Joseph Maloney's hat size" sale, kind of like the guess the name of the car in the wreck sale?

[johnmaloney]

that would be a fun contest. i will have to use that one day.

[steviejitsu]

I get little baby ceriths all the time. Its fun to watch them grow up. I also recently got a bunch of baby tiny ceriths. About size of the ballpoint of pen.