Hi Robert,
You say u have been pulling out some plants in your tank, these tan coloured balls, may be fertiliser balls that were in the plant roots and now you have disturbed the plants these balls are now floating around, other than that I have know idea what these would be, and from what I can make out, your tank is full of male fishy's only, so no chance of them laying eggs, unless some of them have been sexed wrong and you do infact have some females, I wouldn't have thought that the eggs, if thats what they are, would need much force to be damaged/squished.
Anywayz, maybe what and see what other ideas posters come up with.
Good Luck
Lynda