quick ID?

[BigRedSpecial]

I just took a look at my tank with a flashlight(all the lights are out in the tank and room now, total darkness), and to my suprise, the tank is swarming with litterally thousands of tine creatures!

these guys came out from hiding after dark, and weren't there last night. They are almost moquito larvae shaped, with an oval mid section and a forked tail. the oval is light red, the rest of the body is opaque white.

these little guys are tiny, apporximately 1/4 to 1/2 a mm long; they are free swimming, attracted to the flashlight, and appear to be able to stick to the glass, at least temporarily. I am not exagerating when I say there are thousands of them.

I tried to get a picture, but they were too blurry.

Here is my poor attempt at drawing them:
http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/7941/thingsrj9.jpg


The tank has no livestock in it yet, except five red hermits, a single turbo snail, and hitchikers including an orange ball anemone. there are 14lbs of rock in there(10 g tank), 4 lbs of which is less than a week old.

what could they be?

[drummereef]

My guess would be copepods/amphipods. :)

[BigRedSpecial]

not amphipods(at least not any variety I've ever seen), way different. I was thinking they could be copepods as well, but it's odd that so many appeared all of a sudden isn't it?

Like I said, they are also free swimming, which kind of threw me off the copepod idea.

[coast2coast7390]

probally pods

[BigRedSpecial]

Ok I managed to get some pics:
http://img386.imageshack.us/img386/2792/thingsrt9.jpg
to give an idea of size, the substrate is fine grain aragonite
http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/4577/things2bh2.jpg

Not the best pics, but it's something at least. If you look closely, you can also see they have eyes.

I've never seen pics of pods like this... could it be some type of mysis or shrimp larvae?

[Icefire]

look like fish... weird

[Blown 346]

I agree, they look like fish.

[coast2coast7390]

look like baby fish...i think they might be like baby crabs...i say this because thats how they start out before theyre tail wraps around their body

[nanobrett12]

wow! send more pics as they grow please.

[BigRedSpecial]

so no one has any idea? I agree they sort of look like fish, but the more I look at them the more they look like shrimp larvae, at least to me.

It is morning now, and there is not a single one to be found.

[Sepeku]

I'd say peppermint shrimp babies... but you have no shrimp. :lol:

[papagimp]

what alllivestock do you have inthe tank rightnow?

[BigRedSpecial]

five red hermits.

[BigRedSpecial]

Another thought I just had... they definately are NOT fish, as the tail is horizontal(like a shrimp or whale), as opposed to the vertical tail of all fish I know of.

[Paintbug]

those would be Mysid shrimp :)

[BigRedSpecial]

awesome, thank you


I was hoping that was what they were; looks like I'll have one happy six-line eventually.

[Paintbug]

opps i meant Mysis shrimp :)

[Travis L. Stevens]

a type of Mysid, yes. Does it look like this (sorta)?
http://www.serconline.org/pkg_images/opossumShrimp.jpg

[saltpeter]

Mysis---freshwater. Mysid---saltwater.

[BigRedSpecial]

They are too small to make out any sort of appendages; I'm betting these are juveniles. I'm 90% certain now that they are mysid.

I'm betting that given a week or two they'll look just like these guys. (http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://scilib.ucsd.edu/sio/nsf/fguide/kc3803-73t.jpg&imgrefurl=http://scilib.ucsd.edu/sio/nsf/fguide/arthropoda-1.html&h=177&w=225&sz=4&hl=en&start=110&tbnid=NRWbCouGM6MVOM:&tbnh=85&tbnw=108&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmysid%26start%3D108%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D18%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN)

[Paintbug]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9711824#post9711824 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by BigRedSpecial
They are too small to make out any sort of appendages; I'm betting these are juveniles. I'm 90% certain now that they are mysid.

I'm betting that given a week or two they'll look just like these guys. (http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://scilib.ucsd.edu/sio/nsf/fguide/kc3803-73t.jpg&imgrefurl=http://scilib.ucsd.edu/sio/nsf/fguide/arthropoda-1.html&h=177&w=225&sz=4&hl=en&start=110&tbnid=NRWbCouGM6MVOM:&tbnh=85&tbnw=108&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmysid%26start%3D108%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D18%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN)

just so you know mysid shrimp dont get big, maybe 1/4" or so. Melev has a shot of some here (even though he calls them mysis ;) )
http://www.melevsreef.com/id/mysis.html

[StunnaShadez]

lucky you. i wish my tank produced mysid on its own. all i have is annoying amphipods which do nothing but bother my zoos

[BigRedSpecial]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9711933#post9711933 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Paintbug
just so you know mysid shrimp dont get big, maybe 1/4" or so. Melev has a shot of some here (even though he calls them mysis ;) )
http://www.melevsreef.com/id/mysis.html

I meant big in a relative sense; right now they are abour 1/2 a millimeter long, so according to your max size they'll grow 12.7 times their current size:)