Is this fellah a copepod. Friend?

[magnificentNovice]

 

[Rjukan]

Hmm the eyes don't look right.

@ISpeakForTheSeas

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Hmm the eyes don't look right.

@ISpeakForTheSeas

Not a copepod - that's a crustacean larva of some variety, judging by the head and tail there, it's most likely either a pagurid hermit crab larva or a galatheid (porcelain crabs and squat lobsters) larva.

Hermit crabs are more commonly kept, so that would be my first guess, but I can't say for sure without knowing what OP has in their tank.

 

[magnificentNovice]

Not a copepod - that's a crustacean larva of some variety, judging by the head and tail there, it's most likely either a pagurid hermit crab larva or a galatheid (porcelain crabs and squat lobsters) larva.

Hermit crabs are more commonly kept, so that would be my first guess, but I can't say for sure without knowing what OP has in their tank.

Cool!

I have blue leg hermits and and red leg hermits. Chances are it's blue leg buddies.

Any chance they survive or are they snacks? I'd need tiny shells on the ready, I guess.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Cool!

I have blue leg hermits and and red leg hermits. Chances are it's blue leg buddies.

Any chance they survive or are they snacks? I'd need tiny shells on the ready, I guess.

In this case, it's not the blue legs - the tail on their larvae forms a pretty sharp V shape; so it's likely the red legs.

They're basically guaranteed to die off, but if you want to try rearing them the next time:

You'll want a larval rearing tank (sounds fancier and more complicated than it is), and you'll need both brine shrimp nauplii (Baby Brine Shrimp) and shells for them to settle into - the shells are likely the hardest part.

For a very simple larval rearing tank, take a container, put saltwater in it, add an airstone/gentle sponge filter, and - if needed - a heater that is blocked off by a fine mesh (preferably less than 40 microns).

Some larvae may need more than just room-lighting/ambient lighting too, but, IIRC, I don't believe these do.

Anyway, once you have the tank set up, you basically just add the larvae (probably easier in this case to add the hermit with the eggs and just pull it out once the eggs have hatched), add the baby brine shrimp, add some phytoplankton (like Tetraselmis or Isochrysis) to tint the water green (this is done for a number of reasons I can explain if you want), and watch - as they grow, you may need to increase the size of the food you're offering them, and once they get to settlement you'll want to start offering regular fish food.

To summarize:
-Little, simple tank.

-Add hermit larvae.

-Add baby brine shrimp (food) and phytoplankton.

-Adjust feeding as needed as the larvae grow; start feeding regular fish food in addition to the brine shrimp around settlement.

-Add tiny shells for larvae to settle into.

-Adjust shell size as needed as settled juveniles grow.

For an example of a simple larval rearing setup:

Breeding Palaemon Elegans (Mediterrane Rock Pool Shrimp) Guide

Hi, Im going to post a breeding guide of palaemon elegans shrimps here. Two females are preparing for spawning so if you are interested you may want to stick with me. This breeding guide will be interchangable for every kind of shrimps but i stick elegans because: - With cleaner shrimp we are...

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For specific info on hermit rearing:

Once you've got the crabs spawning, I'd assume the shells would be the hardest part (as mentioned above). Hermit crabs of a variety of different genera and species have actually been reared with some frequency in laboratory settings, but to my knowledge they rarely get the crabs to actually settle past the megalopa or glaucothoe stages (likely due to the lack of shells). Rearing them to that point, however, typically only takes Artemia nauplii (Baby Brine Shrimp)

For the shells, you could either try to breed your own snails for the shells, or you could make your own (3D-print or hand make). The first requires the right kind of snails while the second requires you to shape the inside of the shell in a way that is preferred by the hermits (the inside is the most important part - they don't seem to care much about the outside - and you'd need to imitate their preferred snail shell interior to the best of your abilities). Both methods would require you figuring out the proper size of shell for the hermits - if there's a specific species you'd like to breed, you could estimate size based on the average larval hermit size for that species at the time they go to molt to leave the megalopa/glaucothoe stage and enter the first crab stage.

some megalopa stage hermit crabs have a carapace length of 0.8 to 1.0 mm (and some may be even smaller than that). So, you may need shells in the 1.0-2.0 mm range as well.

Hermits will accept glass shells - again, as long as the inside is right, they'll usually take it (though there have been studies showing that the hermits will be more likely to accept a shell if you coat it in calcium carbonate).

For the specifics of the feeding and rearing tank stocking, it seems most labs stock ~100 hermit larvae per liter, and the only report I found that listed the amount of BBS fed used ~5,000 nauplii per liter (so roughly 50 nauplii per hermit).

You may see better survival with copepods, but start with the Artemia (brine shrimp) since that has a proven track record with hermits at this point.

I'd need to look up this species preferred shells - I'm assuming by Red Leg Hermit Crab you're referring to Paguristes cadenati, correct?

 

[magnificentNovice]

Wow! Thanks for all the info. I don't have the means to raise them now, but this is a heck of a reference for a fun experience later.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Wow! Thanks for all the info. I don't have the means to raise them now, but this is a heck of a reference for a fun experience later.

If you give it a try in the future, let us all know how it goes!