What are these little red balls?

[Gizmo23]

Hey guys, while doing a water change I found a bunch of these little red balls in a lower flow area of my tank. They look like eggs to me but im not sure from what. I have a bunch of dwarf blue leg hermits, a possum wrasse, barnacle blenny, trochus snails, Chitons, pitho crab, and maybe an emerald crab (havent seen it in a bit). I also have a brittle starfish. I cant find any info on this hopefully someone will have an answer.

 

[tbrown]

Do they move?

 

[tbrown]

I'm asking because they kind of look like possible flatworms.

 

[Gizmo23]

Do they move?

No movement at all. I squished one in my fingers and it turned into a red liquid. It didnt pop like fish eggs.

 

[tbrown]

How old is the tank?

 

[tbrown]

They do look like eggs - probably fish - but the CUC not eating them seems odd. Usually snails and crabs and fish will clean up eggs real quick in my experience.

 

[Gizmo23]

How old is the tank?

3.5 years old

 

[Gizmo23]

They do look like eggs - probably fish - but the CUC not eating them seems odd. Usually snails and crabs and fish will clean up eggs real quick in my experience.

True I would imagine the hermits would go crazy on them or my possum wrasse to try some but I havent noticed anyone touch them yet. I havent been at my tank to observe for a couple of days so im not sure if there was more of these red balls before compared to now. Maybe its eggs that fell off my pitho crab because all the crabs I get are females confirmed.

 

[penfold2]

My Pitho crab dropped some red eggs like this when she was carrying. I didn't know what they were until I started looking around the tank and saw her fanning the eggs on her underside.

 

[Gizmo23]

My Pitho crab dropped some red eggs like this when she was carrying. I didn't know what they were until I started looking around the tank and saw her fanning the eggs on her underside.

Yeah I think thats exactly what happened here. People keep saying its red planaira but they havent moved at all. Now I just gotta catch my pitho to see if its 100% correct its her eggs. Thank you!

 

[Paul B]

I'm with Tbrown. Look like flatworms from here but not a great picture. Flatworms are flat, not balls.