Swarming mass o' mysid?

ca1ore · Jul 28, 2018

saltyhog said:
Mysis are fresh water, mysid are salt water

Precisely. Saw lots of swarms of the latter when I was diving in Florida last month. I think the OP is seeing copepods not Mysid. Swimming motion of Mysid is quite different. Very cool regardless.

saltyhog · Jul 28, 2018

ca1ore said:
Precisely. Saw lots of swarms of the latter when I was diving in Florida last month. I think the OP is seeing copepods not Mysid. Swimming motion of Mysid is quite different. Very cool regardless.

Agreed! Never seen mysid on the glass. They also seem to swim closer to the bottom and structure. They are very fast and more erratic .....at least the ones I've seen.

Sierra_Bravo · Jul 28, 2018

I'll see if they appear again tonight.

shred5 · Jul 28, 2018

rossco said:
I have had my hermit crabs release young that look like that. The crab stretches out of its shell a bit and you can see all the babies in there and then it snaps the shell forward and propels them out. They swarm toward light and are usually gone by the next night.

What kind of hermit crabs?

Sierra_Bravo · Jul 28, 2018

shred5 said:
What kind of hermit crabs?

Red leg and blue leg... the small ones.

shred5 · Jul 28, 2018

Sierra_Bravo said:
Red leg and blue leg... the small ones.

Which spawn or do both?

rossco · Jul 29, 2018

Mine is a blue leg, good sized one, started as a regular small one but has grown big enough to take up residence in a large astrea shell.

Sierra_Bravo · Jul 29, 2018

ca1ore said:
Precisely. Saw lots of swarms of the latter when I was diving in Florida last month. I think the OP is seeing copepods not Mysid. Swimming motion of Mysid is quite different. Very cool regardless.

saltyhog said:
Agreed! Never seen mysid on the glass. They also seem to swim closer to the bottom and structure. They are very fast and more erratic .....at least the ones I've seen.

They're still active. If you would, please have a closer look now that I have a bit better images since I turned the pumps off this time. Just to be clear - they aren't on the glass, they are throughout the water column. They come to the glass when the flashlight is there. Thanks for your help!

Sierra_Bravo · Jul 29, 2018

For comparison:

Hermit crab zoea:

Mysid:

Copepod:

DEWreefing · Jul 29, 2018

Amphipod

ArowanaLover1902 · Jul 29, 2018

Never even noticed that mysid and mysis were even different, just kinda skimmed it I guess

Sallstrom · Jul 29, 2018

ArowanaLover1902 said:
Never even noticed that mysid and mysis were even different, just kinda skimmed it I guess

Mysis is a genus under the order Mysida. So Mysis is a Mysida, if I get the taxonomic right

From Wikipedia

shred5 · Jul 29, 2018

rossco said:
Mine is a blue leg, good sized one, started as a regular small one but has grown big enough to take up residence in a large astrea shell.

Thanks.
The reason I ask is I am setting up a aquaculture system in my basement and it is going be dedicated towards invertebrates and not so much coral and fish.

ca1ore · Jul 29, 2018

Those new pictures are much better. They do look like shrimp, not copepods as I had suggested before. They don't swim like any of the mysids I have in my system though. Curious.

Sk8erSpanky · Jul 29, 2018

100% without a doubt mosquito larvae!!!!!

just kidding

Sierra_Bravo · Jul 29, 2018

ca1ore said:
Those new pictures are much better. They do look like shrimp, not copepods as I had suggested before. They don't swim like any of the mysids I have in my system though. Curious.

Well, no matter what they are, I'm considering it a good problem to have.

DEWreefing · Jul 29, 2018

Dump the whole lot in your tank and start over.

Seahorse man · Jul 31, 2018

If im not to late, catch some and put them in a separate container with a chunk of live rock if possible, it would be interesting to see what they grow into.

Sierra_Bravo · Jul 31, 2018

Seahorse man said:
If im not to late, catch some and put them in a separate container with a chunk of live rock if possible, it would be interesting to see what they grow into.

I haven't looked since the other day to see if they are still active in the tank, butI think I'd need a phyto supply to get them to survive and grow.

One thing I noticed that was odd that I didn't mention. . . they weren't in the sump and I don't run socks, so they should have been.

Seahorse man · Jul 31, 2018

Sierra_Bravo said:
I haven't looked since the other day to see if they are still active in the tank, butI think I'd need a phyto supply to get them to survive and grow.

One thing I noticed that was odd that I didn't mention. . . they weren't in the sump and I don't run socks, so they should have been.

That is definitely odd.

Just out of curiosity, why don't you run socks?