Odd white fuzzy egg sacks floating in my aquarium?

Question

I noticed this morning that my aquarium filter had these fuzzy white egg bunch looking things sucked up to it; they are very small. I have a fairly newly set up freshwater aquarium stocked with live plants and some neon tetras, zebra dannios, and guppies to cycle as well as some ghost shrimp and two platys. My boyfriend thinks its from the plants but I havent had much look looking into what this may be. Any clue as to what this is?

Yeah, it's been a few days since Ive cleaned since Im trying to get through the initial cycling I dont want to remove too much bacteria even though I have a bio filter. I think the food is probably the best guess since just the other day the bf thought he was being helpful and fed them just shortly after I did and Im sure most of it just sat on the bottom.

it definitely doesnt look like snail eggs and I thoroughly cleaned my tank before setup. I think the old food is most likely the cause although I cant imagine it would grow fungus within two/three days but Ill definitely be doing a cleaning tomorrow and ive reminded the bf not to feed them unless he asks me first haha

Answer 1

It could be a lot of things, based on your description. It would have been helpful to have a better idea of how small "really small" was.

A couble of things i can think of that would fit the "fuzzy" part of your description are that these might be old food pellets (especially if you use the "micropellet" food for the guppies, and that they've been in the tank long enough to grow either Saprolegnia or Achlya "fungus". This is a photo of what this looks like on a dead bug that's been in water for around 1-1/2 days: http://www.visualsunlimited.com/images/watermarked/227/227311.jpg The longer whatever the funugus is growing on is in the water, the longer and thicker the growth gets. You could take a piece out and "dissect" it to see if there's food at the center.

Also, if one of your plants was an Aponogeton, if it bloomed, you may be seeing flowers that fell off into the water - here's what a flower would look like: http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/gallery/displayimage.php?imageid=88

Not fuzzy, but since these were described as "in bunches", I also though of the possibility of balls of styrofoam packing, if your tank came this way, and some may have been hiding under the rim of the tank - maybe some worked loose and were caught in the filter intake.

Answer 2

if they are live plants, i bet they are snail eggs since they are floating above the water line. you should remove the eggs immediately, or you will probably have a snail infestation. a lot of the time, they come in on live plants.

here is a snail egg sack
http://www.offwell.free-online.co.uk/Pond/FOLDER01/snail_eggs.jpg

Answer 3

could also be food pellets gone fungusy, this happens a bit in my tank, (l know l am slack) plus only got one huge oscar and no live plants