baby crabs?

[lauremf2002]

I was picking up some misc coral frags off the bottom of my tank to glue to discs and I used an empty snail shell off the bottom to collect some of the tinier ones. When I dumped it in a specimen cup I noticed that some of the "sand" was crawling. I looked at them with a loop and they are tiny clam shells with legs and antenna coming out. They are not amphipods or copepods. I swear they look like tiny hermit crabs in tiny clam shells. They are the size of a grain of sand! Thats too tiny to even be baby hermit crabs right? I mean they wouldnt have legs at that size if they were. They would be larvae right? so what the heck are they?

 

[cody6766]

do you have (an) emerald crab(s)? I had one release eggs/larvae into the water a long time ago. It's possible, although not highly probable, that one released eggs/larvae and they found a safe hole to hide in while they developed. It would definitely be a pretty cool thing if it happened

 

[lauremf2002]

I had one but havent seen him in a long time

 

[luvabunny]

"I had one but havent seen him in a long time"

...Ahem...um....her...?

 

[lauremf2002]

how could he/she have had babies if I only had one?

 

[lauremf2002]

And I think I should point out that these are some critter inside of actual tiny clam shells, not clam shaped shells.

 

[cody6766]

Mine released her eggs/larvae (I can't remember which it is) after she was in the tank for a while, so it's always possible if she was a semi-recent addition. I'm also not sure of their gestation (is that term only for mammals?) period.

Critters in clam shells is different than clam shell-shaped though. In that case, I"m not at all sure.