ID on mystery eggs
- Thread starter tribbitt
- Start date
Kensington Reefer
Supporting Member
Do monitor
Observe And photograph
Black foot trochus spew gametes up into the water column
They’ve got to settle somewhere
Observe And photograph
Black foot trochus spew gametes up into the water column
They’ve got to settle somewhere
tribbitt
Supporting Member
Stomatella broadcast spawn as well, and they stopped significantly increasing in population once I began running a skimmer, which I think took most of the gametes out. The eggs are in a jelly which makes me think they were laid and not spawned
I do have 2 old trochus and 6 maybe mature trochus in the tank.
Interestingly I just saw a video of a trochus that looks very similar to my “maybe mature” ones in both size and appearance, apparently laying eggs.
In the video, the eggs look very similar to mine, and it seems like the eggs are actually being deposited on the surface (as opposed to being eaten by the snail)
The ones I got from @FullerReef that were spawned are the black foot (sides not bottom) species and I've seen them broadcast spawn kinda like my bristle worms. The trochus I got from Algae Barn have white feet and have been growing much larger, but I haven't seen them spawn yet. He didn't have a skimmer on his tank when they successfully settled too.
tribbitt
Supporting Member
The more I look into this, it seems like yeah, most trochus spawn. There is that one video I linked where it looks like it's laying eggs, but who knows. It sure looks like the snail is popping the eggs out in the video, but it could be a bad angle. It'd be cool if it's just a weird species of trochus that both the video poster and I have which lay eggs, but I'm not hopeful.
Nothing else I have seems to match, though. Nassarius, collinista, ceriths and those other little ones don't do this. They have their own egg bundle shapes. Urchins, clams and stomatella broadcast spawn. I briefly thought it could be damsel eggs from the egg size and color, but damsels lay them flat on a surface and not in jelly. Plus my springeri damsel hasn't been anywhere near the area.
If it's a broadcast spawned invertebrate, I'd expect them to fertilize in the water, develop into veliger larvae, and then settle as a whole animal, not collect in a place that's getting flow, in a jelly ball.
Maybe it's a nudibranch. Maybe it's annelid worms. I'm stumped tbh
Nothing else I have seems to match, though. Nassarius, collinista, ceriths and those other little ones don't do this. They have their own egg bundle shapes. Urchins, clams and stomatella broadcast spawn. I briefly thought it could be damsel eggs from the egg size and color, but damsels lay them flat on a surface and not in jelly. Plus my springeri damsel hasn't been anywhere near the area.
If it's a broadcast spawned invertebrate, I'd expect them to fertilize in the water, develop into veliger larvae, and then settle as a whole animal, not collect in a place that's getting flow, in a jelly ball.
Maybe it's a nudibranch. Maybe it's annelid worms. I'm stumped tbh