Anybody have an idea??

[niagara135]

I came back from a trip to find this growing on the back wall of my sump. At first I thought it might be eggs of some sort, but maybe somekind of algea. I played with the lighting in the sump. If the lights are on at night it seems to grow very slowly. If I keep the lights off for a few days, it seems to shrink. Anybody see anything like this before??

 

[corvettephreek]

how thick is it? does it get thicker when the lights are on too? I would probably say coralline, unless its growing and shrinking SLOOOOWWWLLLYYYY. how fast does it shrink and grow? good luck!!!

 

[Craig Manoukian]

They look like snail eggs to me.

 

[jimeluiz]

I think I have something similar in my sump, but it is white. It's all over the palce. (Mine) Looks like sponges to me...

 

[niagara135]

I'll have to go with snail eggs. I did find one very small snail the other day, thought it might have been a hitchhiker on some rock I put in awhile back. I'll have to keep a good eye on the whatever they are and see if any more baby snails show up in the future. Also just found my 4th hitchhiker urchin. Is there such a thing as too many urchins for a tank??? The other 3 are getting pretty big since I had first saw them. Thinking about thowing one big one in the sump and taking one big one to the fish store. Starting to wonder if a fish will accidently impale itself on a urchin. I know I wouldn't want to be swimming around trying to avoid those spikes.

 

[corvettephreek]

how big of urchin? shouldnt be bad if they are smaller than 2" around.

 

[Craig Manoukian]

I've never seen a fish impaled on an urchin before. They can be quite the bulldozer with rock work, so none in my tank for that reason.

Urchin or snail eggs is still my best guess.

 

[niagara135]

The newest one I found is about a 1/2 inch, then 2 inch, 3 inch and lastly 4 inch. I have found a few corals off the rock perch after a couple of days. Between the couple of turbo snails and the urchins, nothing stays up on the rocks long term. The urchins do an awesome job of keeping the rocks clean though. But to the sump one will go and maybe a couple to the fish store.

I was snorkeling a month back and ran across a urchin that was the size of a basketball. It was a bit imtimidating getting close to all those spikes. The ones I have are babies compared to that one.

 

[Craig Manoukian]

I was snorkeling a month back and ran across a urchin that was the size of a basketball. It was a bit imtimidating getting close to all those spikes. The ones I have are babies compared to that one.

A great example of how easy it is to overstock as all creatures are bigger and have more room to live in the wild compared to our tanks.

 

[niagara135]

2 more small snails found today for a total of 3, plus more eggs on the back wall of the sump. If this keeps up I won't have to buy snails anymore.