Alien Egg in Sand?

[ryn_keeto]

Hi all,

I’ve been running my Evo 13.5 for almost 2 months now. My Rainford’s Goby dug a lair out beneath part of my rock work and currently spends 95% of his time staring at me from inside. During one of our staring contests I noticed what looked like a smooth, ovular, egg-shaped thing with occasional pink bumps on it protruding from the sand. I have NO idea what it is. Here’s a picture.

The green thing is his face poking out. It’s unfortunately the best picture I have been able to get...

My tank is captive-bred only, as I was hoping to minimize any hitchhiking. Here’s what I’ve got:

CaribSea Live Sand
CaribSea LifeRock
2 ORA clowns
1 Biota Rainford’s Goby
1 Biota Green Finger Leather
1 Biota Ultra Green Polyp Leather
1 WWC Aquacultured Xenia

Any ideas what the heck it could be? The Goby rubs up against it in an uncomfortable, he-should-probably-ask-permission sort of way. Here’s a pick of the whole tank, for fun.

It looks like an alien is going to pop out of the thing, so thanks for all your help!

 

[KJ]

Welcome to R2R!!! Hard to tel from the picture!

 

[ryn_keeto]

Right?! There’s not much more to it than that. It’s hard to get a good look at it, much less get my phone to focus on it...

And thanks!

 

[ryn_keeto]

Here are a few more pics from today, if they help!

 

[lilfish717]

Does it move? I'm very curious.

 

[cperry7467]

Just grab a hold of it and pull it out. I can't tell based on the pictures.

 

[ThePurple12]

Uh oh... I can see where this is going...lol https://www.reef2reef.com/posts/5839479/

Can you take a better picture?

 

[Zakery Murray]

ITS A BUBBLE!!! Sorry just kidding, I have no clue what it is,some people might get that reference on here.

 

[lilfish717]

Is it a horse shoe crab? Or stingray? Can't tell from pics.

 

[Alexreefer]

half of a clam shell?

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Welcome to R2R. Great question right out of the box. I have no idea but very nice tank set up.

And what ever you do don’t stick your hand in there ;Nailbiting

 

[ryn_keeto]

Thanks for the suggestions! After uploading the pictures I decided to just remove it. i Lifted the rock and scooped it out with some sand in a net, then put it in a ziploc with some tank water.

As far as I can tell, it was some sort of membrane holding what looked like a mass of brownish, greenish goop. Maybe my goby found a way to poop into a bag of sorts, or maybe he has been stashing algae wafers... he did always act super protective whenever I shone a light on it.

I have no idea, though. I should’ve taken more pics but couldn’t resist seeing what was inside - it didn’t take much squeezing or prodding to release whatever it was.

I’m interested to see if it comes back, or if it’s a one-time thing.

Super weird, though!

 

[ThePurple12]

that's disgusting!