diff --git a/packages/py-snudda/package.py b/packages/py-snudda/package.py
index 08fb34bb7370fb752cfa75d35f977bc6c06956bd..a56336c083998f7547ffbdd5a0a79f39a54443bd 100644
--- a/packages/py-snudda/package.py
+++ b/packages/py-snudda/package.py
@@ -29,3 +29,14 @@ class PySnudda(PythonPackage):
     depends_on("py-psutil",             type=("build","run"))
     depends_on("py-cython",             type=("build","run"))
     depends_on("py-numba@0.53.1:",      type=("build","run"))
+
+    # snudda tarballs in pypi do not include the tests/ dir: just use default spack tests for now
+    # @run_after('install')
+    # @on_package_attributes(run_tests=True)
+    # def install_test(self):
+    #     python('-m', 'unittest', 'discover', '-v', '-s' './tests')
+
+    # blender is for now an optional dependency: leave out of import_modules to avoid errors in tests
+    import_modules = ['snudda', 'snudda.utils', 'snudda.neurons', 'snudda.plotting', 'snudda.analyse', 'snudda.simulate', 'snudda.place', 'snudda.prune', 'snudda.neuromodulation', 'snudda.input', 'snudda.init', 'snudda.detect']
+    # TODO: for Spack>v0.19.0, skip_modules can be used instead
+    # skip_modules = ['snudda.plotting.Blender', 'snudda.plotting.Blender.io_mesh_swc', 'snudda.plotting.Blender.visualisation']