Northwest Dive Club

I was wondering if someone might know what these are.
I seen these at Flagpole in the Hood Canal about 70fsw.
They had more of a purple color in person and about the size of a BB

I think they are Greenling eggs. Not sure if they are Painted.

I am glad you posted, becuase (to be funny of course) I was going to reply:

They appear to be fish eggs, sir!

If I had to guess I'd say either white spotted or kelpy. Painteds are usually orange, At first anyway. Painteds are usually very close to their eggs and Whites tend to buzz you and try to draw you away.

Thanks for the response's.
The funny thing is I would have never given them a second look a year ago.
I see a lot of the Painted Greenlings there but never a Kelp or White spotted.
I will have to keep an eye on them.

Don-B wrote:Thanks for the response's.
The funny thing is I would have never given them a second look a year ago.
I see a lot of the Painted Greenlings there but never a Kelp or White spotted.
I will have to keep an eye on them.

Kelps and white spotted are pretty skittish.

Scubie Doo wrote:

Don-B wrote:Thanks for the response's.
The funny thing is I would have never given them a second look a year ago.
I see a lot of the Painted Greenlings there but never a Kelp or White spotted.
I will have to keep an eye on them.

Kelps and white spotted are pretty skittish.

...except when they are sitting on eggs:

mpenders wrote:

Scubie Doo wrote:

Don-B wrote:Thanks for the response's.
The funny thing is I would have never given them a second look a year ago.
I see a lot of the Painted Greenlings there but never a Kelp or White spotted.
I will have to keep an eye on them.

Kelps and white spotted are pretty skittish.

...except when they are sitting on eggs:

White Spotted Greenling and Eggs.JPG

True.

Truth be known they are just fish eggs, Unless there is an accompanying adult is practically impossible to tell. If the belonged to a white spotted or painted they would be close by. Buffalo sculpin eggs look like these as do others but there is no real identifier except a nervous parent.

My bet is on Sculpins of some kind. I saw a bunch of Spotfin Sculpin eggs laid in and around Cloud sponge that looked like that too. And they were deep, about 100 feet.

70 feet is pretty deep for Greenling eggs, at least the ones I've seen before. Those are a bit more colorful than the slate charcoal gray color of Kelp Greenling eggs I've seen in the past. They also seem to lay their eggs in empty barnacle shells a lot, but again, that's just my experience.

Rick Harbo, in his book Whelks to Whales, has a section at the end that shows eggs and who they belong to. According to him, Painted Greenlings lay orange eggs (I have seen this as well and Dusty mentioned it too) so I think you can safely rule out Painted Greenlings. Same with Buffalo Sculpins - their eggs are quite red.

But Sculpins....they can do more purple colored eggs, so I think that's the right track for these.
- Janna

Sculpins are devious little buggers. This is a smooth head sculpins nest. there are eggs here from at least 9 different females. Note the different colors? Crazy hey?

Thanks again for your Reponses.
I will say I didn't see any fish guarding the nest.
There are a lot of small to medium size Sculpins around there so your probably right.
I will be curious to see when they hatch. maybe I can get a shot of some little ones.

That would be cool but it won't do much good as far as ID. Hatchlings generally look nothing like adults.