Bogies spotted! Help me ID please

[magellan007]

I was just taking a gander at the back dark corner of my tank and noticed these tiny little critters meekly swimming about just a few milimeters above the sand. That's the only area in my tank where there's virtually no water flow, and the lights don't reach there (because of the rocks). The only things likely to spawn besides the copepods and amphipods are my red-tip hermits...so could they be offspring?

I know there's gotta be a larvae page out there somewhere.. could someone please direct me to it? Or give thoughts as to what these things might be?

Thanks,
~K

 

[pwhitby]

most likely they are mysid shrimp.

Paul.

 

[Krbekk]

Jez of all people! Pictures, pictures, pictures. LOL If you ain't got a camera then draw us one.
What do they look like?
Are they clear/translucent with lots of legs?

 

[magellan007]

so..if they're mysid shrimp, I assume they hitch-hiked on the rock? (why are they just now showing up then?)

Yes, Krbekk, they're transparent..and NO i'm not going to waste my pencils drawing one, and they're WAY too tiny for a camera--unless it's attached to a microscope(and i'm not even gonna try to capture some and take their photo in the lab at work! lol)

They *do* look like tiny shrimp larvae, but at that stage, ALL shrimp larvae look the same... Hopefully, once they're big enough to be seen they'll be eaten! haha.

 

[Stealth91RT]

What!? No pictures! maybe I can draw one up for you. Do they look similar to this ---> . (hehe j/k) they are prob. some type of shrimp. I guess you'll just have to wait and see! I had a bunch growing in the 55 but when I changed over to the 75 they all seemed to disappear.

 

[saltycreefer]

Good luck getting pics of those.

 

[papagimp]

Magellan, I had a nice little group of them living in my refugium for awhile. The just kinda popped up one day out of nowhere. Eventually they all went away, but that's okay, plenty of other critters still thriving in the sump.

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

Yup, most likely Mysids. Do they look like these?

 

[Serra]

I'd like some living in my tank...a whole herd of them even! Would sure save on money.

 

[magellan007]

yay, travis! you always pull through with the pics! =D

they're prolly just the mysid... i'm not really worried unless i find two mantis shrimp soon, lol...*knocks on wood* <just in case>

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11855776#post11855776 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by magellan007
yay, travis! you always pull through with the pics! =D

they're prolly just the mysid... i'm not really worried unless i find two mantis shrimp soon, lol...*knocks on wood* <just in case>

Even if they happened to be mircale baby stematopods, they would be munched before they had a chance to do any harm, but you would have some happy fish.

 

[Brad Rogers]

I think I might have the same thing. I have found quite a few on my rocks, glass and even under my magnet scrubber. I have access to a microscope, I'll see if I can take a picture next week.

 

[Lightsluvr]

Cheesh!

Cheesh!

I wish my eyes were that good!

I'm lucky to see the clowns!

LL

 

[pwhitby]

Mysid are relatively common in tanks with sufficient hiding space for tiny babies

 

[jjmcat]

I know some of you all might say I'm crazy but I have them as well.I had them before but they all died after the freeze we had.Now here is the crazy part.I just noticed them again recently im my sump.The only thing I have done differently is started feeding mysis again about 3 weeks ago.I dip all my new corals that go into my reef and never add the water from the bag.Is it possible there could have been some frozen eggs in the mysis that I have fed?

 

[TulsaReefer]

I think it is more likely that there may have been eggs or even a few survivors on your live rock or in the sump during the freeze. I know I've had pods live through a 4 week hyposalinity treatment that would have killed most inverts. Some of these critters are really hardy, and it may be that their larvae or eggs are very hardy if not the adults.

It's also possible that they came in on something like cheato (did you dip the chaeto I gave you?). I haven't seen any mysids in my fuge, just lots of gammarid amphipods, but I haven't really looked in their lately either. It's in a hard place to get a good look at, and the sides of it are crusted over in coralline now so can't really see in there very well.

The reason I don't think it would be from frozen mysis is that the vast majority of mysis sold frozen are fresh water species, since they are easer to harvest and "cleaner" as they come from cold water lakes that have very little else in them. Mysis are actually a bit of an ecological disaster in some Canadian lakes they were introduced into. But that's another story.

 

[Patrick12]

If you have a refugium you could scoop tham out and place into, you'd give thema chance to proliferate and keep the supply up.

 

[magellan007]

dang...i'm surprised this thread got so long....

there are more of them now, and bigger. And i also noticed that the majority of them are living in an abandoned hermit shell for protection. I just can't wait till they venture out and my banded goby gets a buffet, lol.

 

[TulsaReefer]

If they tend to hide in a shell, they may be Gammarid amphipods which will often hide during the day, in shells, rocks, or other small crevices. If you want to really see them, wait until your tank has been dark for an hour or more, and then take a flashlight and see what you can find. All kinds of neat little critters come out at night. My tank is so infested that it's almost a little scary seeing them all scurry around in there. But amphipods are mainly detrivores, so they are really only cleaning up what then find, and do make good food for the fish if they find them. This link has some good pictures of gammarids: Amphipods

 

[magellan007]

they are definitely the mysid shrimp...

my amphipods are ridiculously huge; i see new giant sheddings every day floating around in the water column. if they get any bigger i'm gonna have to come up with names, lol....jk.