Cleaner shrimp gave birth?

[SteelMastiff]

I think perhaps one of my cleaner shrimp gave birth. At 2am this morning I look at my tank and it appeared as if it was snowing inside. So upon closer inspection I can only conclude that it must be baby cleaner shrimp. I started the tank with dry rock, and haven't feed any live foods, so nothing has been introduced into the system. I can't think of anything else that it could've been, any thoughts?

 

[nbelohlav]

it could be mysis or mysid shrimp... i have never heard of anyone successfully having cleaner give birth in a home aquarium but i guess anything would be possible...

 

[SteelMastiff]

it could be mysis or mysid shrimp... i have never heard of anyone successfully having cleaner give birth in a home aquarium but i guess anything would be possible...

That was my first thought also, but how would the mysis get into my system? I have feed no live foods, just frozen mysis, pellets, and flakes. I do have a pair of clowns, but I have seen no behavior suggesting they were protecting eggs, and judging by the amount and color of these critters I'm pretty certain they weren't clown fry.

 

[scuzy]

Did you buy any life rocks?

 

[SteelMastiff]

Did you buy any life rocks?

Nope, no live rock in either sump or DT. I started the tank with dry rock. I am by no means a fish breeding expert so I plead Ignorance. I did just add a Fox face to my DT that I pulled out of a six week quarantine, perhaps it was pregnant...:hmm5:

 

[fishouttawater]

do you have hermits? My hermits spawn like this about every 2 weeks...the fish love it!

 

[SteelMastiff]

do you have hermits? My hermits spawn like this about every 2 weeks...the fish love it!

I have maybe 8 red leg dwarfs, but these things had tails, at least they appeared too. I took a short video with my phone that l'll transfer to my laptop so I can see it better. My tank is 8ft long, and there had to be hundreds if not thousands of these critters swimming around in it. One more reason I think it may have been my cleaner shrimp is that one of them didn't come out to eat yesterday, I thought it was probably molting, but perhaps not...

 

[Mike Ordner]

If you have more than one cleaner shrimp in your tank it is very common them to be fertile and to produce larval shrimp. They fertilize each other. Makes great food for the fish and corals. Raising them to be adult shrimp is very difficult. So a spawn after lights out is a very real possibility. Your comment about a shrimp staying out of site after a spawn also makes sense. They can only fertilize eggs during molting.

 

[fishouttawater]

Certainly could be....however when my hermits spawn the little things have shrimp like tails that flit about just like a free swimming cleaner would. If you google pictures of hermit larvae it might give you a better idea. Either way it's cool...enjoy!

 

[leveldrummer]

do you have pods? amphipods and other similar creatures will look alot like shrimp at night. and all sort of things can hitch hike in on corals, so it could be mysis or brine or any number of other creatures. its a good sign that your tank is thriving though, so what ever it is. congrats!

 

[SteelMastiff]

No pods, and it's a fowlr. I did consider rounding up the pods that were in the three tanks I shut down prior to starting this one, but I took the lazy path and didn't. I did keep a twenty gallon up for a month prior to tearing it down because I enjoyed watching the pods and bristle worms do there thing. My six year old son got a kick out of feeding them and watching them eat....

 

[J2T]

My pair of cleaners regularly spawn and yes it will look like little white specs all over. They always spawn at night usually a few hours after lights out. My tank comes alive even at that hour once those little bits of protein hit the water lol

 

[amutti]

I've accidentally raised a couple babies to my fuge. It's a pretty cool surprised.

 

[rssjsb]

What you're describing does sound like a shrimp spawning event. When I had a pair of cleaners, it would happen periodically. Free bonus feeding!

 

[ramseynb]

I agree , I've had peppermint shrimp that would spawn all the time. Fish loved it and a few times I actually watched the shrimp kick the larva off. They would swim quickly to the top of the tank kicking of the babies in the process. Fish would go crazy. It seemed to happen an hour or two after lights out, at least, that's when I've witnessed it.