Egg capsules contain living eggs or tiny animals. Don't
disturb them.
Egg capsules are found on stones and among seaweeds. Watch
your step.
Please
don't bring egg capsules home. Thousands of baby animals
may die.
Where
seen? These egg capsules are seen on many of our shores
and can be seasonally common. These capsules were probably produced
by cephalopods which includes octopuses, squids and cuttlefish.
Features: Some take the form of
small tear-drop shaped capsules (1.5-2cm) joined together to form
a 'string' about 10-15cm long. The entire assembly is usually attached
to a firm structure or surface such as a tubeworm's
tube or sea
fans (gorgonians). Some are also attached to seaweeds.
The capsules are black but become transparent just before the babies
emerge as miniatures of the adults.
Other egg capsules look like white sausage-shaped capsules 6-8cm long.
Usually seen in a bunch of several 'sausages' attached to large masses
of seaweeds.
String of black egg capsules Changi, Jul 02
Developing babies Changi, Jul 03
Another kind of egg capsule commonly seen.
Pulau Hantu, Feb 08
Good mama: In bottom-dwelling octopuses, the female looks after her eggs; keeping
them oxygenated, free of algae and bacteria, and defending them from
predators. The Big-head seagrass octopus has been seen 'carrying' strings of eggs.
Changi, Jul 09
Carrying eggs?
Dive video of cuttlefishes courting and laying egg capsules deep in a colony of branching coral. Pulau Hantu, Aug 2020