Lake Arthur Question

I know what you are talking about.  They've grown on the underwater trees there for as long as I can remember.  I don't know exactly what it/they are though, some type of fungus I suppose.

crappie: Have you ever touched one? They are NASTY! Accidentally grabbed one pulling in the anchor...

Crappie that is some nasty crappie stuff.

I've seen what you are describing too.  I wonder if they are some type of fresh water sponge?  I did a little research online and what I found sort of describes what we have seen.  If the colony of animals was large enough, they could show up on a fishfinder.  I also found some info on fresh water jelly fish.  But I doubt that is what we are seeing.

Hey Guys,

I saw something on the news about these things in Texas I believe.  They are protozoa that have gathered together for whatever reason.  They look like jellyfish and are completely harmless.

The red algae has me confused, but the hellbender egg masses are much more dense and dark in color (in comparison to what was posted above).  The picture looks like a spotted salamander egg mass to me.

Again, I'm not saying what you guys are finding is an egg mass, just throwing additional ideas out there about what it might be.  Has anyone inquired with the PFBC about dangerous blooms in the lake?

This first shot is next to my cell phone for scale:

This next shot is to show the whole thing. Sorry it's a bit fuzzy:


When I found it, it was much rounder and full of moisture, but I put it in a garbage bad in order to bring it home and put a slice under the microscope (which I never got around to) and forgot about it on the back porch and it had deflated substantially. When fresh though, it was pretty solid.

I saw one a few weeks ago that was about half this size.

luvin, That's strange, I have a very good anti virus program on my puter and it hasn't found anything. It is a foreign website so who knows.
 
Bob

Saw the gelatin masses first hand today.  I hadn't realized they were that prevalent in the shallower bays of the lake.  Definately not salamander eggs, and I would believe they are indeed the bacterial colonies that were talked about above.  Not very attractive, but if they aren't hurting the ecosystem I wouldn't be too worried about them...

My anti-virus software suite did not detect any viruses on that link either.  Some anti-virus suites are more sensative to malware than others, it might've looked like a suspicious website and that's what triggered your anti-virus software.

A friend of mine took some kids to Pymy yesterday and they found one there. From the picture she took it was the same size as the others. 

ORIGINAL: plnoldrick

its this

http://forums.fishusa.com/Brain-eating_amoeba_in_warm%2C_still_water/m_28580/tm.htm

was up a couple weeks ago and came accross a submerged tree that was covered in the things, just about every branch had one or 2 on it

I found one of these five or six years ago while fishing at Greenlick Dam. I was fishing the shallow side and saw it a few feet out in the water. I tried snagging it a few times and eventually got it to shore. It was about a foot in diameter and 3-5 inches tall while laying flat...haven't seen one since. I always wondered what that was. Good post.

I forgot all about this thread...I should'a posted this when I finally found out what they are; http://www.bio.umass.edu/biology/conn.river/bryozoa.html
 
I've maintained reef aquariums and would like to try keeping some of these sometime.