Kessil

Wierd Eggs: Whose are they?

I found some white rice grain sized cyst like things on my rocks; I originally thought that they where some weird animals but now a lot are on my my glass and I saw some little eggs inside. The only two animals that could be in the proper numbers to produce all the eggs; some stomatellas I got from Bondolo and some rotifers I had been trying to feed the tank.
I really think it might be the rotifers because the water they were in before my tank had salinity that was a good amount higher and I remembered that at the conference by Randy Reed he said that rotifers can produce cysts if they are under stress.
 
A rotifer cyst from a typical L-strain is around 30µm (.3mm - 0.0118110236 in.). You are not going to see them with your naked eye in much detail in other words.
 
Stomatella snails are broadcast spawners ... so it wasn't them either. :)

Odds are you've got some snails in the tank that come out at night.
 
Thanks Gomer that is exactly what they look like.
I also have counted about 113 egg cysts on the wall each with about ten individual eggs in it; plus probably another 100 on the rocks. Then there are the many egg cysts that I know have hatched. Plus I saw a baby today.
I don't know how long it takes for nerites to grow to adult size, does anyone know?
 
I could be wrong but I thought nerites were one of the snails don't have the right conditions to make it through their life cycle.
 
nudibranch said:
Thanks Gomer that is exactly what they look like.
I also have counted about 113 egg cysts on the wall each with about ten individual eggs in it; plus probably another 100 on the rocks. Then there are the many egg cysts that I know have hatched. Plus I saw a baby today.
I don't know how long it takes for nerites to grow to adult size, does anyone know?


They are eggs, not cysts. Forget you learned that word cyst, it applies to very few things in this hobby.

Rotifers also produce eggs. Cysts are only produced when stressed and egg production is converted to cyst production.
 
That's not a cyst either. Just call it an egg sack ;) A cyst is something entirely different.
 
Gomer said:
The obvious question to me would be what makes a cyst a cyst in the context of marine organisms?

Good thing there is the internet :lol:
 
Doesn't mean I meant to be the one to answer it :p

You're probably more qualified to answer anyways :lol: I'm just a graphics guy.
 
I basically taught an "Environmental Science" class at my HS my JR year. The teacher didn't know squat and it was stuff I learned as a very young kid so it was second nature for me. I helped create the tests, help correct them and helped answer, well answered most questions other students had. That class filled my "biology" requirement oddly enough. I had that and 4 years of Ag Tech which was considered a science credit as well.

That is not to say I don't know what a cyst is though :lol: I'm just banging on the College Degree tree for the most part.
 
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