Night Critter ID

thunderdood · Aug 28, 2017

The other night I forgot to plug my powerheads back in after feeding my Dendros and after the lights were off I happened to take a look at the tank with a flashlight and saw a ton of tiny critters swimming towards the light and after looking closer, it looked like a bunch of tiny mysis shrimp. I don't have a camera good enough to get a picture but at the biggest, they were probably half the size of a 1mm pellet. This makes sense why my Dendros always look like they ate a lot in the mornings when I look at them even when I haven't fed in a couple days.

Does anyone have any links of nocturnal critter IDs?

Reefing Madness · Aug 28, 2017

Copepods

nautical_nathaniel · Aug 28, 2017

It's probably some sort of copepod or amphipod species. They love to come out at night to feed since there will be a lower chance of being eaten by fish. I would compare what you saw with the critters on this page: http://www.cdmas.org/articles/artic...ikers-guide-to-the-reefs-the-zooplankton.html

Maggie321 · Aug 28, 2017

Half the fun of the tank is watching the critters at night. I will sit in the dark with a flashlight and just watch the crawley critters.

Maritimer · Aug 28, 2017

It's also entirely possible that you've got some mysid shrimp in your tank. I've seen them show up in reef aquaria at the local Public Aquarium, and in two of my preferred LFS.

~Bruce

telsonman · Aug 29, 2017

yeah its going to be mysid shrimp. they're very little

thunderdood · Aug 29, 2017

They were definitely more shrimp like where the tails were longer and they were swimming in the water vs. the pods that I normally see crawling around.

thunderdood · Feb 4, 2018

Update. Last night after lights out I was feeding my Black Sun Corals and saw the little shrimps again. Attached is the best pic I could get. Not sure what they are but look like some sort of shrimp. Does anyone know what species this is?

Maritimer · Feb 4, 2018

If they appear to be moving with purpose, rather than just drifting around, they're mysid shrimps - nice to have around, though they can be predatory to things like 'pods.

If they're just drifting aimlessly with the current, your cleaners or peppermint shrimp may be getting their wild thang on.

~Bruce

Lovemyreef2015 · Feb 4, 2018

I agree, they are mysid shrimp.

Cae · Feb 4, 2018

They look like mysis, you lucky so and so.

thunderdood · Feb 5, 2018

Maritimer said:
If they appear to be moving with purpose, rather than just drifting around, they're mysid shrimps - nice to have around, though they can be predatory to things like 'pods.

If they're just drifting aimlessly with the current, your cleaners or peppermint shrimp may be getting their wild thang on.

~Bruce

I don't have any shrimp. I only have a Yellow Assessor and a fuge in my setup. They definitely move with purpose as they were following my head lamp. They must be the reason my Dendros always look fully fed early in the mornings when I don't feed them the night before.