Can anyone ID these pods?

[ThRoewer]

I found these pods in a fishless tank at a local store and they let my siphon some off. They continued to thrive in my refugium until I had to take it down for a move.
Their swimming pattern is quite distinct and they seem to prefer low flow zones of refugia or bottom corners of fishless tanks:



@Reef Nutrition, Chad, do you have any idea which species this could be and how to culture them in numbers? They are not actually benthic in the sense that the crawl on the substrate but they seem to like being close to a substrate or other structured they can use for shelter.
They seem to be calanoid.

 

[sixty_reefer]

That looks like larvae, maybe hermit crab or cleaner shrimp spawned

 

[Reef Nutrition]

I found these pods in a fishless tank at a local store and they let my siphon some off. They continued to thrive in my refugium until I had to take it down for a move.
Their swimming pattern is quite distinct and they seem to prefer low flow zones of refugia or bottom corners of fishless tanks:



@Reef Nutrition, Chad, do you have any idea which species this could be and how to culture them in numbers? They are not actually benthic in the sense that the crawl on the substrate but they seem to like being close to a substrate or other structured they can use for shelter.
They seem to be calanoid.

Their swimming pattern and size suggests a species of shrimp from the Mysida order (opossum shrimps). They can be difficult to culture as they are highly cannibalistic.

 

[ThRoewer]

Their swimming pattern and size suggests a species of shrimp from the Mysida order (opossum shrimps). They can be difficult to culture as they are highly cannibalistic.

Back then I looked at them under the microscope and they were not Mysids but were most certainly copepods and looked kind of like this:

They had large antennae that formed a "T" outline with the body.

Next time I go to the store I need to see if I can collect a few more.

 

[Reef Nutrition]

Back then I looked at them under the microscope and they were not Mysids but were most certainly copepods and looked kind of like this:

They had large antennae that formed a "T" outline with the body.

Next time I go to the store I need to see if I can collect a few more.

Sounds good. A new image would be great.

 

[ThRoewer]

Sounds good. A new image would be great.

What is interesting is that they have a highly geometric swimming pattern: straight lines with sharp directional turns that. In the video, it gets a little lost in the cloud of them but if you try to concentrate on one you can see it.

 

[ThRoewer]

I managed to collect a few more of these at the LFS yesterday. Unfortunately, at this point, I have no way of taking a picture of them. I got to find a good USB microscope. The closest picture I could find so far was this one:

They have two long antennae that somewhat point forward so that they form a "Y" with the body.
Their tail looks bifurcated with two fairly long antennae-like extensions.
They flee from light and are always found in the corner that is farthest from the light source.

@Reef Nutrition Chad, If you are interested I can give you a few to identify them properly and see if there is potential for mass culturing them.
Their size is close to Artemia nauplii which might make them an interesting alternative for raising more tricky larvae.
And since they obviously do well reef tank environment and procreate well in refugia they are an ideal refugia seed organism.

 

[Reef Nutrition]

I managed to collect a few more of these at the LFS yesterday. Unfortunately, at this point, I have no way of taking a picture of them. I got to find a good USB microscope. The closest picture I could find so far was this one:

They have two long antennae that somewhat point forward so that they form a "Y" with the body.
Their tail looks bifurcated with two fairly long antennae-like extensions.
They flee from light and are always found in the corner that is farthest from the light source.

@Reef Nutrition Chad, If you are interested I can give you a few to identify them properly and see if there is potential for mass culturing them.
Their size is close to Artemia nauplii which might make them an interesting alternative for raising more tricky larvae.
And since they obviously do well reef tank environment and procreate well in refugia they are an ideal refugia seed organism.

I would love to get a sample. Please email me so we can set up a shipment. You can use my FedEx # and ship them FedEx Ground. Cheers!

 

[ThRoewer]

I would love to get a sample. Please email me so we can set up a shipment. You can use my FedEx # and ship them FedEx Ground. Cheers!

Will do as soon as things are slowing down a little on my end - just started a new job and things got a little hectic.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Young amphipods

 

[ThRoewer]

Young amphipods

They are most definitely not Amphipod larvae. Those look different:

Fig. 2.3 Life cycle of amphipod crustaceans. ( A ) Life cycle and...

Download scientific diagram | 3 Life cycle of amphipod crustaceans. ( A ) Life cycle and direct development of Parhyale (Modified after Browne et al. (2005), Rehm et al. (2009)). As sexually dimorphic features, mature amphipod males are noticeable larger than females, and their second gnathopods...

www.researchgate.net

 

[vetteguy53081]

Meant copepod