mini cleaners

[tiffmail]

Usually, when I turn off the lights for the night all of the fish retreat to their respective sleeping places, but last night there was a tremendous amount of activity....the fish were swimming around the tank and they were nipping at these tiny white specks and swallowing them. I wasn't sure what the specks were, but I looked at them closely and realized that they were moving (it sort of resembled organisms that you might find in a stagnant pool of water). A few minutes later, I realized there were newly-hatched baby cleaner shrimp; they're transparent and you can see their legs (only because they're moving them really fast) and their tails. They're buoyant and seem to float towards the surface.

I was only able to save about six or seven of them; they are currently in a breeding container on the side of the tank so, I don’t have to worry about the water conditions, but I haven’t the faintest idea about what to feed them. I ground up some flakes and also put a drop of Marin Plankton form LiquidLife into the breeder. Does anyone have any other suggestions for me?

 

[Anonymous]

Hey iff!

More than likely they are pods of some kind-very good to have in your tank! Eventually you want to have many of these, though others can tell you better than I how to keep the population up.

Do you have a fuge at all?

Do a search for "pods" and see what you come up with as well.

 

[tiffmail]

Hi there! The first thing that came to mind was that they might be "pods", I've read about them on the message boards, but I don't think they are pods (although, I'm not sure what those look like either). They are really hard to see, but they have tiny shrimp tails and legs and I swear that I'm not smoking anything funny.

No, unfortunately, I do not have a fuge.

 

[tiffmail]

Oops, I guess I posted it twice.

 

[Anonymous]

Cleaner Shrimp Larvae are unable to move their legs really fast. Do a search on Mysid Shrimp or Possum Shrimp and see if that's what you caught.

If they are Lysmata Shrimp Larvae then they will be very feeble and hanging upside down near the water surface.

 

[tiffmail]

I'm not trying to be a pain and I appreciate your feedback, but I don't think it's anything else other than baby cleaner shrimp. Regardless, I'll still do the research on both pods, as well as Mysid and Possum shrimp. For the last couple of weeks, I observed one of the cleaner shrimp to have eggs under the tail section of its body. Two days ago, the eggs were gone and now, I'm guessing that it hid them somewhere in the tank and they've now hatched. I can try to take a picture of them, but I have a feeling that the only way that you'd be able to get a good look at them is under a microscope.

 

[Anonymous]

you arent being a pain, and thats the idea of a forum...to discuss these things. I hope whatever it is you find your answer! :lol:

 

[ChrisRD]

Well, either way, they're a good source of natural food for your fish. :wink:

 

[tiffmail]

ChrisRD - My mouth hit the floor when I read that... 8O

Awwwww, that's terrible! But, I guess you’re right…that's the cycle of life. Here I was looking all stoopid trying to scoop out these little things from my tank at midnight and stayed up until 1 a.m. watching them. I'd like to see if I can raise the six or seven that I was able to catch....the fish ate the rest of them.

 

[ChrisRD]

Nothing stupid about it - by all means, if you're interested in raising them, go for it. The fact is though, there's lots of stuff that reproduces in our tanks that ends-up as fish food, so I wouldn't do it out of guilt. :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

I'm going to tag along as well... my CS's are always adding to the "soup of life"... I'm interested to see your success in raising them.

~wings~

 

[tiffmail]

Thanks for everyone's help. They were all gone when I went home to look for them after work. I think they slipped through the bottom of the breeder and ended up being someone's afternoon snack. : (

Wings - have you ever tried to raise them or do your fish just eat them before they are able to develop?

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for everyone's help. They were all gone when I went home to look for them after work. I think they slipped through the bottom of the breeder and ended up being someone's afternoon snack. : (

Wings - have you ever tried to raise them or do your fish just eat them before they are able to develop?

No, because I wouldn't know what to feed them. They aren't real shrimpies yet though.. because they stay in a plankton stage. If you take a flash light at night, they are attracted to the light... kinda cool. And if the room light is on, but the tank lights are off, it's enough light to keep the fish awake for a tasty snack.

It would be a cool experiment to get them to live. I really don't have the time for it, but would be interested to see someone else do it.

~wings~

 

[SnowManSnow]

nice treat for your fish!

 

[Anonymous]

I've raised both Scarlet and Peppermint Cleaner Shrimp larvae. It's time consuming and frustrating. Peppermints are a LOT easier.

 

[Anonymous]

I had one of my peppermints who likes to 'clean' my hand everytime I stick it into the tank release it's larvae while perched on my hand the other day...I wish I had a camera handy, LOL.

Tiff, here is a great link to the hitchhiker database here....lots of great pictures of critters that live on our tanks.

http://www.reefs.org/hhfaq/

 

[tiffmail]

Thanks Lawdawg! That info is really useful...I appreciate the picture of the PODS and was curious about what they looked like.

When I hopped onto the site, I read that the glass anemones are "pests" is that true? I actually thought they were pretty and bought some of them. Well, they actually came on a piece of live rock that have some mushrooms on it, but I thought the combo was cool. 8O So much for thinking....

 

[Anonymous]

:lol: Tiff, do a search on "aptasia"...you'll see the problems those things can create in a tank. Your LFS actually sold them to you :? wow.

 

[tiffmail]

OH MY GOD! I can't believe that I have them in my tank. I've been feeding them too.

Yes, it's the same place that told me the Goni was "easy" to take care of.

Should I try to kill the Aptasias?

 

[Anonymous]

Hahahahahaha, one lfs here sold this lady an aptasia on a big honking rock, charged her $$ for both 8O Just so the anenome could "host" the little perc she was getting.

Yes, you should try to kill the aptasia. If the rock is small enough, take it out and burn the suckers, that seems to be the easiest and fastest way. Oh, I forgot, you got shrooms on that rock too You can get some kalkwasser paste and spread that on them.