Please help ID egg mass

[Nicolás Escalante]

Hello everyone!!

Today I found an egg mass on the live rock in my invertebrate QT tank. I think I can rule out crustaceans because they carry their eggs with them, so the possible culprits are blue tuxedo urchins (most unlikely because the ones I have are small still), and Truchus snails, although I have read they broadcast spawn so I don't know if the eggs would clump like that.

Here is a list of the livestock in the tank:

Blue-legged hermit crabs
Scarlet hermit crabs
Halloween hermit crab
Pom-Pom crabs
Emerald crab
Porcelain crab
Skunk cleaner shrimp
Blue banded coral shrimp
"Peppermint" shrimp (Lysmata wurdemanni)
Blue tuxedo urchin
Luzon starfish (Echinaster luzonicus)
Trochus snails
one small colony of zoas
assorted live rock.

Any idea what could it be? the whole clump is about 8 mm. (5/16") across, I am worried it can be some sort of pest, but the last time I added anything alive to the tank was over a month ago, and I have not seen any bristle worms or other hitchhiking creatures, but me not seeing them does not mean they can't be hiding somewhere!

thanks in advance for the help!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

@ISpeakForTheSeas

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Hello everyone!!

Today I found an egg mass on the live rock in my invertebrate QT tank. I think I can rule out crustaceans because they carry their eggs with them, so the possible culprits are blue tuxedo urchins (most unlikely because the ones I have are small still), and Truchus snails, although I have read they broadcast spawn so I don't know if the eggs would clump like that.

Here is a list of the livestock in the tank:

Blue-legged hermit crabs
Scarlet hermit crabs
Halloween hermit crab
Pom-Pom crabs
Emerald crab
Porcelain crab
Skunk cleaner shrimp
Blue banded coral shrimp
"Peppermint" shrimp (Lysmata wurdemanni)
Blue tuxedo urchin
Luzon starfish (Echinaster luzonicus)
Trochus snails
one small colony of zoas
assorted live rock.

Any idea what could it be? the whole clump is about 8 mm. (5/16") across, I am worried it can be some sort of pest, but the last time I added anything alive to the tank was over a month ago, and I have not seen any bristle worms or other hitchhiking creatures, but me not seeing them does not mean they can't be hiding somewhere!

thanks in advance for the help!

I can rule out all of the inverts listed - hermits, crabs, and shrimp, as you mentioned, carry their eggs; urchins and starfish broadcast spawn; Trochus don't lay eggs like this.

Give that it's an invert QT tank, it's probably mollusc eggs (probably nudibranch or other snail/slug eggs)

A couple of much less likely options are a mucus cocoon from a fish covered in sand, or - very unlikely - possibly an egg raft from a fish (extremely unlikely).

I would guess you have a hitchhiking sea slug - do you have any corals or macroalgae in the tank?

 

[Llyod276]

Reminds me of the snail eggs I see from time to time in the fuge. But mine are more circular and not as many. I'll have to take a pick some time.

 

[Nicolás Escalante]

I can rule out all of the inverts listed - hermits, crabs, and shrimp, as you mentioned, carry their eggs; urchins and starfish broadcast spawn; Trochus don't lay eggs like this.

Give that it's an invert QT tank, it's probably mollusc eggs (probably nudibranch or other snail/slug eggs)

A couple of much less likely options are a mucus cocoon from a fish covered in sand, or - very unlikely - possibly an egg raft from a fish (extremely unlikely).

I would guess you have a hitchhiking sea slug - do you have any corals or macroalgae in the tank?

Hello there, thanks for the help!
I don’t have any fish in this tank, because it’s a quarantine system exclusively for inverts. I do have a small colony of zoas but no other corals. I did get about 10 pounds of very fresh Indonesian live rock, and a few things have popped out here and there: I’ve seen Tunicates, sponges, fan worms, peanut worms, Dorvilleidae worms, amphipods, cooepods, etc.

Different types of macro algae have sprouted but I have not removed them because this is more of a type of “refugium setup” but the urchins mow them from time to time.

I do carefully observe the rocks to find potentially harmful hitchhikers, and so far I have removed 1 asterina, but have not seen any nudibranch so far, although there could be some hiding here and there.

The Zoa colony was dipped and since you mentioned it could be nudibranches, I inspected it further and see no sign of zoa eating nudibranches.

The tank has bare bottom so there’s less chance of things hiding, but who knows!

-update. I saw a white spec crawling around and upon inspection under the microscope, it turned out to be a tiny trochus snail! But that didn’t come from the eggs shown in the video.

I guess I’ll keep an eye out for other creatures and see what else comes out. I still have a month before I plan to add everything to the main tank, but it more random eggs keep appearing, I might prolong it.

Thanks again for your help!

 

[Nicolás Escalante]

Reminds me of the snail eggs I see from time to time in the fuge. But mine are more circular and not as many. I'll have to take a pick some time.

What type of snails do you have ?

 

[Llyod276]

Down there, mainly these tiny snails, prolly collinista or something similar. Also added stomatella and lots and lots of pods, scud, bristle worms, a serpent star or two, astrina stars, and flat worms, which unlike most people's mindset in this hobby, don't bother anything in my tank. So I don't bother them. Live and let live... basically what ever is in the macro I got from wherever.

 

[Nicolás Escalante]

I was

Down there, mainly these tiny snails, prolly collinista or something similar. Also added stomatella and lots and lots of pods, scud, bristle worms, a serpent star or two, astrina stars, and flat worms, which unlike most people's mindset in this hobby, don't bother anything in my tank. So I don't bother them. Live and let live... basically what ever is in the macro I got from wherever.

hoping to get some stomatella as hitchhikers on the live rock, but I haven’t seen any, and I don’t know where to find some for sale. I’ve read those are great clean up crew members!

 

[Llyod276]

You in illinois? There a shop up here that has em and dude will just toss em to you for free*** (like if you purchase fish etc)...

 

[Nicolás Escalante]

You in illinois? There a shop up here that has em and dude will just toss em to you for free*** (like if you purchase fish etc)...

Unfortunately not. I’m in northern Germany. There’s a few very nice fish shops nearby, but I haven’t seen any stomatellas in their systems… although I haven’t asked! Maybe I can get some from the place I usually buy stuff, if they have them.

What else would you recommend as a non-conventional member of the CUC? Besides the normal hermits, snails, etc.? I have been keeping an eye out for abalones, they are supposed to be real algae bulldozers! But not often in stock

 

[Llyod276]

Look into sea slugs, cucumbers. Other than that, yeah it gonna be pretty routine. The system has for the most part stabilized in variety. Animals are introduced but availability sucks for the most part. Hit or miss really

 

[Llyod276]

Here i finally found some on the glass, have no idea who or what laid them... or even if they are eggs but...???

 

[Nicolás Escalante]

Here i finally found some on the glass, have no idea who or what laid them... or even if they are eggs but...???

The do look like eggs, although a couple of them are bigger than the rest.

I think one would not be bored by keeping only live rock. There’s always some new critter or type of algae appearing!