Identification of N. Wennerae young?

M

mx250

New member
I've kept two N. Wennerae in a 30 gallon chamber of my sump for the last 18 months. I had three, but one was killed in an apparent fight. The two I have left seem to get along - I have seen them swap "tubes" now and then (I have pvc tubes for them to live in), and they both seem very healthy.

Not long ago, things were very out of the ordinary. There was an unusual amount of digging and tube swapping, and I wouldn't see one or the other for days at a time (which is strange, as it's pretty hard to hide in there).

Anyway, now there are all these little things popping in and out of empty tubes, and some swimming up near the surface. I'm not sure if the ones on the surface are the same as the ones on the sand, but from what I can see, they look very similar. I snagged one (about 4mm head to tail) near the surface and looked at it under a x40 microscope. It looks like it could be a mantis, but I'm not really sure. I have three chambers in my sump, and they are most heavily concentrated in the chamber with the mantis in it. Generally, the amphipods and such are more heavily concentrated in the other two chambers.

Anyway, are there any pictures of what N. Wennerea look like at this stage?

Thanks!
 
Found enough pics to say yes - they are mantids. There are loads of them (I'd guess 50 to 100) - mostly on the sand. Some are near 1cm. They seem like they may eat flake, and I have watched them drag small pellets (~2mm diameter) from the sand into tubes and crevices. They seem to stay in groups, vs. being evenly distributed throughout. They are very fast! Part of me wants some to make it - but I think that would be bad as I already have two adults in there...
 
I live in Nashua, NH right on the MA border. Where in MA are you located? There are all sorts of crustaceans that fit the same discription. Isopods are one of them. Stomatopods have planktonic young so it would be a very rare event if you had that many if any all ready settled to the benthic stage. I would think most of the larger stronger ones would have eaten the others rather than hunting or hanging out together or died well before reaching the benthic stage. None the less is you want a second opinion and not to far away I would be glad to take a look and take some off your hands if in deed they are young stomatopods.
chris
 
I'm just outside Worcester. I certainly could be wrong - I have lots of amphipods, isopods, and copepods, and these are not like any of those. I'll see about trying to snag a larger one and get a photo (though at that size, it probably won't be very good) - wish I had a camera attachment for my scope...
 
Nice pictures! What did you use to take the photos?
That is a picture of a mysis or mysid shrimp. They are small shrimp that feed on algae and small bits of food. It is a good sign of a heathy refugium and tank system. They are also great food for seahorses, baby cephs and other small marine creatures. They can also be cultured. I had a nice culture going a year or so ago. They do great in a twn gallon with a cheapo airlift undergravel filter and a inch of crushed aragonite. I fed mine cyclop-eeze, golden pearls, flake food , rotifers, artemia and algae paste. I may have to try and stasrt another one for the bluelined pipefish I just brought home.
They buzz around the bottom of that tank back and forth and will come to the surface for flake food as well.
chris
 
Duh! Of course - they do look just like small versions of the frozen mysis I feed! Frankly, I'd rather have mysis then mantis, as two is enough for me (and apparently three was too many). Thanks for the help with the id!

I took the photos with a Minolta D7 in macro mode through a x10 eye loop (thanks for the suggestion).
 
Larval gonodactylids go through their first three molts remaining with the mother in her cavity. They stay on the bottom and cluster together. After a week, they molt a fourth time, become photopositive and swim up into the plankton where they remain another month, molt another four times and then settle out as 7-9 mm juveniles.

While with the mother, they live off of yolk which is visible in the photos. After entering the plankton, the yolk will be exhausted in a couple of days and they will starve to death. It is almost impossible to rear them in an aquarium, so don't worry about a plague of N. wennerae. None of they will survive more than a few days.

Roy
 
Not necessarily. I'm working with an old laptop with a screen so bad all I can see is the dark mass in the gut. Tuesday when I get into the office I should be alble to take a closer look.

Roy
 
I noticed something new today. At first they looked similar to the first "things" I found, but not quite. Here are some photos:

http://webpages.charter.net/scjs/thing3.jpg

http://webpages.charter.net/scjs/thing4.jpg

I'm just about positive these are young N. Wennerae (assuming that's what my adults are).

In "thing3.jpg" you can see both the raptorial appendage, and the swimmerets. Note that while it looks like there are two in that photo, it is really one with the bottom one being a reflection off the bottom of the slide.

In "thing4.jpg" you can see both sets of raptorial appendages.

There are loads of these things swimming in the water column. Unlike the first "thing" I was looking to have identified, these swim throughout the water column - not just at the surface or the bottom. In the droplet on the slide it was often doing the "rolly polly" move of "flipping back" on itself. Pretty cool...

Just curious, what would these eat. Could they be fed with rotifers or golden perls or something like that?
 
Anyone got any ideas on trying to keep some? I gather they won't survive in the main tank, but if it's not too much work I might try isolating some and raising them in a separate tank...

Thanks!

-Shawn
 
It is a ton of work. The greatest success I ever had was 2 out of 100. Each animal is housed individually, given live food (brine shrimp naupli, rotifers, etc) every day and the water then changed, etc.

Roy
 
Thanks for the info. Sounds like my sucess rate would be 0/100, so I'll spend my time on somthing more fruitful!
 
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