What are these? Are they eggs?

[Fishies86]

So I've just come home from work to find loads of tiny beige/white balls all over the substrate of my aquarium. I'd love them to be eggs from my false julii corys but I don't think they are. What's confusing me is that they're just loose on the substrate, they're not stuck on the glass or leaves or anything.

In my tank at the moment, I have emperor tetras, false julii corys, an otocinclus, male Siamese fighter, and loads of cherry shrimp. What could they be?! Hope someone can help me identify them

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[Istrom]

If they're eggs they aren't fertilized, so they won't hatch. Almost surely they're otocinclus or corydoras eggs though.

 

[Istrom]

Scratch that, I'm pretty sure they're just cory eggs.

 

[Fishies86]

I've seen Cory eggs stuck on glass before and they were slightly transparent and looked almost jelly like. These look opaque and like stone texture. I hope they are Cory eggs! what would they look like if they were fertilised?

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[Gillie]

Are they all around the base your plants?

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[Fishies86]

Yeah quite a lot around the base of plants, but some in the open areas of substrate too.

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[Gillie]

Do you happen to use osmocote root tabs? It looks like some pellets worked their way up, it happens to me every once in a while.

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[Fishies86]

It does look a bit like osmocote, but I've never used it in my tank. It's a lot paler too than osmocote.

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[Gillie]

What fish is the tank stocked with?

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[Istrom]

He said in the original post, read through up top.

 

[Gillie]

Ok I'm trying to get an idea of the size, the substrate looks like either fluval or ecocomplete and judging by that it doesn't seem like it could be eggs from any of those fish, they're just too big.

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[Istrom]

That's what I thought too. I'm not exactly sure what the size of the substrate is, but what also went through my mind is that if the eggs aren't fertilized then surely there's fungus all over them. I don't think that'd increase the size very much though.

 

[Fishies86]

The substrate is sansibar fine sand from JBL, with dennerle shrimp substrate on top. The "eggs" are the same size as Cory eggs, but look different to the ones I've seen before.

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[Fishies86]

Hopefully this'll give you a better idea of scale you can just see for in a row behind the middle stone, and some just to the left of the stone on the right. Hope this helps! Thanks for all the replies so far!

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[Istrom]

I'm still sticking with cory or oto eggs, since they're unfertilized the eggs would have fallen off of the surface they were on.

 

[Dallascowboys16]

Do you happen to have nerite snails? The fact that some are in rows leads me to think they are some kind of snail egg.

 

[Fishies86]

Nope, no nerite snails, only Malaysian trumpets. Ooo I hope they are Cory eggs! I've been waiting for them to start for aaages! (Well, weeks really. They're only young, but I'm impatient )

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[Dallascowboys16]

Nope, no nerite snails, only Malaysian trumpets. Ooo I hope they are Cory eggs! I've been waiting for them to start for aaages! (Well, weeks really. They're only young, but I'm impatient )

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Cory eggs seem the most likely then. Cant tell if they're fertilized or not but they look white and thats usually not a good sign.

 

[emilygupps]

I'm still sticking with cory or oto eggs, since they're unfertilized the eggs would have fallen off of the surface they were on.

Ottos breed in the tank?


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[Dallascowboys16]

Ottos breed in the tank?


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Theres only a couple documented cases but it is EXTREMELY rare. All ottos are wild caught because of this. The eggs would also be much smaller.