Pier Pressure Posted January 30, 2008 Report Share Posted January 30, 2008 A couple of nights ago, we turned a blue LED light on to have a look at our saltwater setup after the main lights had gone out. We got lucky and saw what appeared to be thousands of these tiny little grey pod-looking things. The fish and tube anemone were going crazy eating them, and once the lights came on the next day, they were all gone. I only have a pair of clowns and a pair of cleaner shrimp - everything else is a single - and so we are thinking these were probably baby cleaner shrimp. Has anyone ever raised them? How would a person go about it? They were so small I do not think that a breeder net would be an option. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murminator Posted January 30, 2008 Report Share Posted January 30, 2008 More than likely copopods and they only come out at night to feed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pier Pressure Posted January 30, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2008 They were not copopods. I know what those look like and these were definitely not them. These things were a whitish/grey in colour, as opposed to the more brown colour of the copopods, and they were also smaller. I have never seen a swarm like that in my tank before, and as it is only a 28 gallon with about 35 pounds of live rock - I cannnot imagine that I am hosting that size of a copopod population. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharuq1 Posted January 30, 2008 Report Share Posted January 30, 2008 I don't know what baby cleaners look like, but I do know that they are apparently hermaphrodites and if you have a pair will likely spawn in the tank causing a "feeding frenzy". Cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pier Pressure Posted February 1, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2008 It was totally sweet, man - whatever it might have been. I looked up baby cleaners on the net and they seem to have long tentacle dealies that I did not see on these creatures - but they were super tiny and under the blue light and hard to make out. Checking the tank under the blue light nightly now! If we come across it again I shall take a video and see if I can figure out how to download it. I bet it has happened before - we were just lucky enough to catch it this time. The cleaners have these neon green things on what I would call their bellies, and sometimes they pulse and strobe (flutter back and forth kind of motion) and gain in size. I tried to look it up on the net and figure these might be the eggs but the articles I read were really technical and I get bored easily. Way cool whatever it was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_sheebz Posted February 1, 2008 Report Share Posted February 1, 2008 copopods are like the size of a pinhead.. amphlipods are the ones that look like shrimp cleaner shrimp babies and any other saltwater fish babies (excluding inverts that split) need massive amounts of phyto plankton but its quite likely they wont live. my friend hadnt put anything new in his tank for over 1 year, no corals and no liverock or fish and one day there were hundreds of jellyfish in his tank He dumped bottles of phyto in the tank because thats all they eat in the wild and they still died. so i would doubt something like a shrimp would live Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharuq1 Posted February 14, 2008 Report Share Posted February 14, 2008 See this on peppermints peps everywhere Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pier Pressure Posted February 14, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 14, 2008 Now those are some awesome shots. Thank you for sharing that - and I do believe I had baby cleaners. Finaddict was over at my place the other day and she told me my shrimp are definitely in the family way - the neon green things in the bellies are the eggs, but the fluttering things I was talking about are actually legs and have nothing to do with it. Way, super cool. It is hard enough getting rid of all my freshwater stuff. I am not sure I am going to have the guts to actually get rid of the saltwater. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharuq1 Posted February 15, 2008 Report Share Posted February 15, 2008 Why would you have to get rid of the sw? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pier Pressure Posted February 15, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 15, 2008 Well, after having two 150 gallon aquariums blow out on us over the course of eleven months, we decided to get out of the hobby completely. Any hobby that can cause a blood pressure spike like that is not a hobby we want to be a part of. So we are in the middle of selling off all the freshwater stuff. But now that we are just about down to one saltwater tank - we are getting very reluctant to part with it. Might just stay on the salty side for a while, at least for the length of the life of our livestock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharuq1 Posted February 16, 2008 Report Share Posted February 16, 2008 well if you ever don't want your shrimps and so forth I sure would like a pm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pier Pressure Posted February 18, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 18, 2008 Duly noted. I have had a lot of interest in the saltwater but I will put you on the list. It is our last tank and we will definitely be keeping it for a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pier Pressure Posted February 26, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2008 So I found out last night we are definitely dealing with cleaner shrimp babies. I was checking out the cleaner shrimp and one of them was twice the size of the other and kind of acting weird on the glass at the back of the aquarium. A closer inspection of the shrimp showed that there were millions of tiny little white eggs in this gooky stuff attached on her belly. We tried to take some shots but the algae was fairly deep on that side, but I shall post a picture if we find one that shows the eggs. I cannot imagine parting with the saltwater now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parachromis1 Posted March 10, 2008 Report Share Posted March 10, 2008 amphipods. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pier Pressure Posted March 13, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 13, 2008 Would amphipods not be present each and every night if they are living in the tank? We only had these things show up one night - and there were millions of them. I only have a 28 gallon saltwater reef - would that support a million of these things? I am completely convinced they were baby cleaners, especially considering I have been watching the adults get bellies full of little green eggs! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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