There are three balls which I assume are eggs of some kind, but they’re huge! This is only a small jar and has been sealed for over a year, maybe 2. What are they? One seems to look a bit like frogs spawn as it has the dark spot in the middle, but it can’t be! Please help!
by Bearly_awake1
25 Comments
Bryozoans filter feeders that form large gelatinous colonies. Looks like you’ve got a healthy jar there, great job
How exciting… i bet you thought you had seen everything that your jar had to offer…lol
Honest question: What is the purpose of keeping a jar of pond water? What do you expect to see or discover?
Probably that single celled algae
The orbs have chosen you
This is SUPER cool!!
Thanks for sharing
Cyanobacteria is my opinion. Maybe colonies of a Nostoc species.
Some cyanobacterias produce toxins, and it can be a bit unpredictable when they do, so don’t handle them without gloves, and be careful with that water, just to be safe!
I got myself a jarrarium recently. That reminds me I should go look at it
magnificent bryozoan!!! If it is.. These colonies can get bigger than a human head in the wild!
-fossil evidence of these colonies goes back 470 million years!
-each tiny invertebrate, “zooid” is barlely visible to the human eye at 0.5mm
-sometimes referred to as swamp brain “moss” or “moss animal”.
https://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/FactSheet.aspx?SpeciesID=2335
A forbidden olive
That’s so cool!!!
Both my testicles, they have finally appeared !
Pretty sure I got a bryozoan colony in my planted tank but it’s long and stringy and appears to have died out. Jealous!
Those are what’s called a volvox, IIRC. Primitive colony organism, IIRC.
L I F E
May I ask OP, are you on the east side of North America? That is its natural range, however they do seem to be migrating north west with climate change
I think you have the correct answer with bryozoans as it’s fresh water but just as an additional fyi – if you ever find something looking like this on the beach/sea water it’s often an egg sac of polychaete worms (eg green leaf worm in the UK).
Tbh having one of The Orbs is a dream. This is a best case scenario bc it’s not a larva you’ll need to think abt caring for (or culling)- it is just ORB. Now you can sit and ponder your orb. You are orb parent. Orb is best son because orb does not cause trouble. Gets straight A’s in orb school, wants to be an orb doctorate one day.
They look like slimes and I’d die for them
Valonia vebtricosa is my guess.
It would be really cool if those were bryozoans, but I think it looks more like some kind of algae. I know that there are many species, which can form such balls.
OP, do you see any kind of zooids confirming that it might be a bryozoan? I zoomed in but could not see any, sadly. I mean, algae are also cool, but I would prefere bryozoans myself.
Forbidden bubble tea
I thought that was a really bizarre r/stupiddovenests
Look at this guy, pondering his orbs
I have 3 different jars in my window and my family wasn’t happy about it but now they think they are kind of cool 😎