Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!

[Timfish]

I was doing maintenance on a system when this stuff showed up. It's a nice surprise to have something spawn or hatch out just would like to know what it is. They're pretty tiny, maybe 200 microns (1/5 mm) if I had to guess. With a magnifying lens they were really round, flattened on one end and had 2(?) short tentacles. They move pretty fast though, there's no current to speak of as the pumps had been off for awhile. I apologize for the video, wasn't exactly ready to film a spawning or hatching event.

 

[Harif87]

Looks like it could be snail eggs. I recently caught my turban snails in a spawning event which lasted a few hours.

If your fish made a meal out of them, they're likely eggs of some sort.

 

[Timfish]

Fish were avoiding them. They are also actively swimming so eggs can be ruled out. Possibly larva of some kind, including snails. I suspect, since they showed up in mass at the surface within minutes of the pumps being turned off, a spawning aggregation an organism taking advantage calm water. The ones I saved I placed in a system without any filtration and just using air bubbles for filtration were still around the next day but I have'nt been able to see any since then.

 

[ogmillion]

I was doing maintenance on a system when this stuff showed up. It's a nice surprise to have something spawn or hatch out just would like to know what it is. They're pretty tiny, maybe 200 microns (1/5 mm) if I had to guess. With a magnifying lens they were really round, flattened on one end and had 2(?) short tentacles. They move pretty fast though, there's no current to speak of as the pumps had been off for awhile. I apologize for the video, wasn't exactly ready to film a spawning or hatching event.

Space Waves

pretty sure those are copepod nauplii — ~200 µm + the fast darting fits — harmless + actually a good sign your micro-food-web is healthy

 

[Devidjhon]

Last night’s “surprise, surprise, surprise” was a tiny hitchhiker mushroom opening after lights out totally unplanned joy. I’d just gotten home from a delayed flight and a quiet ride bnlbostonlimo gave me time to breathe, then test alk and salinity. Sometimes calm helps you notice miracles.