String-like creature.

[Bill70]

What is this string-like creature in my reef tank?

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

The pic is a bit blurry, but my first thought would be sea hare (or - if you don’t have a sea hare - some similar gastropod) eggs.

 

[Bill70]

It is sea hare eggs. I have a single sea hare and searched for sea hare egg masses and that is exactly what I have. I am assuming they are safe but will they actually hatch?

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

It is sea hare eggs. I have a single sea hare and searched for sea hare egg masses and that is exactly what I have. I am assuming they are safe but will they actually hatch?

Yeah, the eggs are safe/harmless.

Unless you have two sea hares, I would assume the eggs are not fertilized (meaning they would not be able to hatch).

ISpeakForTheSeas said:
Most likely not. Do you know the species by chance though, and do you have more than one? I know at least some sea hares are hermaproditic, but they’re not self-fertile and to my knowledge they can’t store sperm to fertilize eggs at a later date like some animals can. So, if you only have one the eggs are probably not fertile. Plus, even if they are fertile, the sea hares I’ve looked at have planktonic larvae - so they’ll be eaten or pulled into filters, killed by powerheads, etc.

If you want to raise them, you’d almost certainly need a growout tank setup for that purpose.

 

[Bill70]

Thanks for the additional information. I figured these would not hatch but also had heard that some sea hares are hermaphroditical. I also had read that the eggs were usually not eaten because of their taste but was curious. I was not going to try to raise them just more curious than anything else. It was just weird because it showed up out of nowhere.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Sea hare eggs agreed and is generally a long yellow stringy gelatinous like egg mass which rarely hatch as sea hares are heteromorphites and cant fertilze them alone