Do freshwater fish eggs move?

staceyanna

staceyanna

Praise is what I do...
Sep 6, 2005
103
0
0
Miami -> Wash, DC
I ask because I have what seems to be "eggs" in my filter, and this is not the first time I have had them in my tank. When I got the tank along with the rest of the fish I saw a few at grave level that would actually MOVE on their own, they looked like round eggy things and had no fins or tail. They just looked like an egg trying really hard to swim. SIze is about 1/16 of an inch and the insides look greyish green like shiny fish "skin." I initially thought something laid eggs and they got mainly eaten but now that I see them again and its a month later I have reason to suspect they are eggs.

Well today sitting on my couch I looked at what seemed like more moving eggs in the filter pad basin (my Whisper filter is clear). I never looked in there before cause when the lights are off in the living room I cant see into it, but tonight I had them on and I saw at LEAST 50 of them squiggling around swimming to and fro inside the filter basket! Some were stuck in the filter floss and were no longer moving. But I dont know what they are! At the bottom of the basket and even at the top it looks like maybe cracked eggshells just floating about. At the time I first saw them (5 weeks ago) I only had tetras (5) in the tank and the silver dollar and 2 catfish. The silver dollar is alone so I know they dont belong to him. Could they be eggs from the tetras?

Since they are so small I cant get a clear picture of them at all but does anyone know if fish eggs move? I dont think they are parasites cause I saw them on the first day I had the tank set up as well, and this was over a month ago.
 
No..fish eggs do not move. There are some egg scattering species such as your danios..but the eggs are small and clear until a few days old. If I were to take a guess..I'd say maybe some type of snail or some such thing. It may be your Danios if you have enough gravid females..they could be dropping eggs all over and the filter is picking them up. Without a pic its hard to tell though. Pick a few out and place them in a jar of tank water and see what they do in a couple days. If they are indeed eggs you'll see definate development if you use a magnifying glass.
 
i have breed danios many times in the past and when the eggs are about 24-48 hours old they begin to develop a tail type thing in the egg without a microscope this looks like the one cell stage so i doubt that they are eggs
 
this is what they look like... http://community.webshots.com/photo/337288421/379933459JKIECT

And I dont have any snails in my tank or live plants. These things were in there the first week I had set up the tank and they dissappeared on their own, maybe eaten guess. But now its a month later and they are back.
 
I am bumping this up cause I just cleaned my new emperor and there are these same things in there as well. this time i rinse the filter in some tank water and left them there but not overnight, just for a short while but they are definitely moving around by themselves and I dont know what they are. They are silvery grey and I would like to get rid of them whatever they are. All of my fish are fine right now, save for another algae bloom. Is there something to treat the water to get rid of them? Would increaed heat kill these things? They look exactly the same as the ones I mentioned in the first post in this thread, silver grey small egg looking things.

Please help.
 
Yes they were hopping, I didnt find the 2 we saw way back when, my son did and I though they were baby fish or eggs. Now when I rinsed the filter in the water they were jumping around in there too. Ever since adding the emperor 280 I have yet to see any actually IN the tank, they are just mucking up my filter sponges and I would like to know how to get rid of them.

I know fish eat Daphnia, but they really dont look like daphnia to me but I cant find a good pic of any online. All the pics of daphnia I find online are either line drawings or highly magnified things under a microscope, so I dont know for sure if they are daphnia. If it helps they dont look anything like the daphnia I have see.

A better description would be they resemble raw cous-cous (rice) some are greyish and some are white in color. SO I say they look like miniscule jumping eggs.
 
I know what you mean about comparing what you see to magnified pics. All I know is that daphnia jump like that and they are roundish. When I had some, that's what they looked like. They can be any colour from yellow to brown. Can you get one and (eeeewww gross factor) squish it? It will be harder to squish, like a baby snail and then will suddenly 'give'. The only way to really confirm is take some in a jar to a junior or high school. I'm sure the science room has microscopes and could help you out.

Edit.... another thought. Google pictures of "ostracod". They look like seeds. My book says their movements range from "a slow creep to a rapid bouncing or scurrying." and colour ranges "from chalky white to yellow"
 
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Alright, if I do have them, which I dont know HOW I got them, I dont even have live plants and I saw them in the the first week i had the tank!

Anyway how do I ge RID of daphnia. If thats what they are?
 
I don’t think without a complete breakdown, you could totally get rid of them and that would be too drastic, they will not harm anything. It’s more a visual aspect. Moreover, they eat algae. My guess is it would be the same as planaria or nematodes. Extra cleaning/gravel vacuuming and water changes for a little while and cutting down feeding will get rid of them to the extent you might hardly see them. If you feed fish less, they might be more inclined to nibble on them, too.

edit... yet another thought. If you want to try an make a positive I.D., perhaps PM member Tom.E with a link to this thread. He is fantastic at buggy things. He might not see the thread from the title if he is selective about ones he opens.
 
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