Cloud of tiny shrimp

[SaltyCabbage]

I was doing a nightly check on my tanks and noticed a bunch of shrimp like larvae last night.

No shrimp in the system so maybe crab babies?

I don’t expect any to make it but they’re fun to watch while they last.

Here are the tiny buggers.

 

[DaJMasta]

My guess is some kind of hermit crab larvae. The hermit larvae I've seen in my tank have that slightly more bulbous head and tend to curl up and then jump as part of their normal movement. They're pretty strongly phototactic and will all react quickly to a sudden light shined on them. Could also be emerald crab - don't exactly remember what they look like though...

You could try looking on your rockwork with a flashlight after lights out - usually when inverts spawn they try to climb to a high place and then pump out the larvae - sometimes an actual jet of them!

 

[musel101]

That’s awesome they’d be sick if it was a whole bunch of baby cleaner shrimp

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

I would say mysis shrimp but their shape isn't quite right. Cool find whatever they are

 

[SaltyCabbage]

My guess is some kind of hermit crab larvae. The hermit larvae I've seen in my tank have that slightly more bulbous head and tend to curl up and then jump as part of their normal movement. They're pretty strongly phototactic and will all react quickly to a sudden light shined on them. Could also be emerald crab - don't exactly remember what they look like though...

You could try looking on your rockwork with a flashlight after lights out - usually when inverts spawn they try to climb to a high place and then pump out the larvae - sometimes an actual jet of them!

I have probably a hundred porcelain crabs and a bunch of hermits so hopefully some are spawning. Would love to see them spawn, I’ll look out the next few nights!

 

[SaltyCabbage]

That’s awesome they’d be sick if it was a whole bunch of baby cleaner shrimp

It would be sweet, though my puffer and I would be happy for different reasons haha.

 

[DaJMasta]

I have probably a hundred porcelain crabs and a bunch of hermits so hopefully some are spawning. Would love to see them spawn, I’ll look out the next few nights!

Porcelain crab larvae look very distinct - somewhat of a similar body shape with a long (2x their body length) spike pointing out of their head. Makes them sort of unicornlike and it's actually slightly flexible. Supposedly an adaptation for faster swimming/swimming higher current (and there are urchin species that show similar really long straight appendages.)

Should be around the same time of night for spawning, but you should be able to distinguish the two at a glance without magnification, provided you've got some light on them (I like to side light with a narrowish beam flashlight so you get lots of contrast on the dark background.)

 

[SaltyCabbage]

Porcelain crab larvae look very distinct - somewhat of a similar body shape with a long (2x their body length) spike pointing out of their head. Makes them sort of unicornlike and it's actually slightly flexible. Supposedly an adaptation for faster swimming/swimming higher current (and there are urchin species that show similar really long straight appendages.)

Should be around the same time of night for spawning, but you should be able to distinguish the two at a glance without magnification, provided you've got some light on them (I like to side light with a narrowish beam flashlight so you get lots of contrast on the dark background.)

Wow you weren’t kidding that thing is huge lol. Thank you so much for the info! Got a lot of nice topics to research now. Will grab a flashlight and keep checking every night for something new.

 

[vaguelyreeflike]

I was doing a nightly check on my tanks and noticed a bunch of shrimp like larvae last night.

No shrimp in the system so maybe crab babies?

I don’t expect any to make it but they’re fun to watch while they last.

Here are the tiny buggers.

These look like mysid shrimp to me, if they don’t change or get bigger then they are a mysid species. We have them in our system and they just look like oddly shaped shrimps up close like that.

Could possibly be larvae though, only time will tell unless you can look at them under a microscope.