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MYSTERY PICTURES
Today at work I took some pictures of "something" that appeared on the glass of two of our goldfish tanks. It looked like strands of eggs of some sort, but eggs to what? Nobody has a clue at this point. Rob is usually the one who can identify this sort of thing, and he had no idea either.
The first tank I scraped them off the glass, not realizing right away that this was something "different". There were only a few strands like this in that tank, but I noticed how hard they were to scrape from the glass using a scrub pad and my fingernails. Upon further inspection, I discovered a slight pattern around the tank. Always these "things" appeared in strands, such as seen here. This is 1 strand. There were many strands in the tank, but they were spaced randomly around the different walls, some reaching into the substrate (which is a heavy, large grain of gravel), and others were near the top edge of the tank. All were completely submerged. The tank temperatures range about 68 degrees F, up to about 71 degrees F. I plan to take specific tank readings in the morning, and will post more to this study at that time. There are no live plants in these tanks, only plastic and silk, and some plastic Japanese houses for decoration. Being a store tank, there are times when the tanks are a bit crowded for a few days, but with our complex constant drip/overflow filtration system, there is fresh, clean water being constantly flushed into these tanks. When they are crowded, the drip can be and often is increased.
These pictures were done in close up, only inches from the tank, with the zoom lens. This was at Rob's request, hoping that a more close up look could lend ideas as to the identity of this mysterious "thing" that has occurred in our tanks. Out of 20+ tanks, this was found in only 2. The fish are Ryukins and Orandas.
Notice that at the edges are some sort of softer particles. I have entertained the thought that if these are eggs, possibly the outer particles are either "hatched" or some sort of protection for the egg mass. All of the strands appeared to have this other mass along it's outer edges.
At this time I am still looking for input from anyone who feels they know or recognize our find. As I learn more I will update this article. I plan to send these pictures to some other, well educated, online friends of mine who may have a clue as to what this is, and whether the fish are in any danger. The safety of our fish is my primary concern.
Input can be sent directly to me at