Are these snail eggs?

[eatyourpeas]

The sack looks similar, but a lot smaller than what I am used to and not as gelatinous. They are all over the hornwort in a tank with mystery snails, cherry shrimp, and planaria (for now). I am hoping it is biofilm.

 

[Colin_T]

My first reaction was snail eggs from pond snails but the middle and bottom pictures do not look like snail eggs.

They are not mystery snail eggs because mystery snails lay clusters or cream, white or pale pink eggs out of water. Their eggs are round balls about 2mm in diameter and stuck in clusters, and look nothing like the thing in the pictures.

Shrimp carry their eggs on pleopods (swimmerets) under the tail and release live young when the eggs hatch. These are not from shrimp.

It doesn't look like biofilm and they aren't from planaria either.

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What they are is really interesting

It could be a type of fungus but I have no idea what they are. You need to record everything about this, including daily photographs and video, as well as keeping notes on when it first appeared, what is in the tank, water chemistry, temperature, tank inhabitants, etc.

If it spreads, maybe take a sample to a biology lab and see if they can identify it. This could be something new to science, at the very least it's different and cool to look at.

 

[eatyourpeas]

As of this afternoon/early evening the whole thing had disappeared. I will keep an eye on it and will report if they reappear.

I have not found anything that looks similar. They are about 1/10th the size of bladder snail eggs. I have had mystery snail eggs so am familiar with those as well. Plenty of berried shrimp and they are definitely not that either. Even though they are clustered, they are "dry" looking clusters as opposed to having an obvious gel or mucous around them.

Aliens!

 

[Colin_T]

You should send the pictures to a museum and biology labs and ask if they know what it could be. If they don't know, they might know somebody who does.

I found a weird thing growing out of the ground years ago and it turned out to be a rare fungus. I had a couple of clear photos of it and showed everyone I knew. Nobody had ever seen anything like it. One of the guys I showed said he would take the pictures to work and ask around for me. A few weeks later the pictures had circumnavigated the world and a fungus specialist overseas identified it and said it was a rare fungus that only pops up once every 5-10 years, and only stays above the ground for about 24 hours.