Cryostasis? Living seamonkeys in my tank

[sly]

One of the things I feed my fish is frozen brine shrimp. I was cleaning out my filter again today and I noticed several adult brine shrimp were in there and were alive! How did they get there? Could there have been eggs in the frozen food that simply hatched? Or did my food simply "come alive"?

 

[mr.smiley]

Hmm.....................eegs? I dont know. maybe they were somethin else

 

[madysmom]

they are not live adult shrimp. they are probably some sort of pods. sound like amphipods or copepods.

 

[sly]

I'll take some pictures next time. They look like adult brine shrimp to me. They were squiggling in the filter. But you could be right.

 

[mr.smiley]

Originally posted by madysmom
they are not live adult shrimp. they are probably some sort of pods. sound like amphipods or copepods.
DOPE! I forgot about those critters

 

[madysmom]

i have crushed coral substrate and if you look closely to the bottom right hand side of this picture that i am attaching you can see an adult pod

 

[porfishguy]

I have seen lots of pods in my tank and they always seems to get attached to the sponge in the overflow.

 

[madysmom]

i find that i have a pod factory in my filter when ever i change my sponge and carbon, they are always crawling all over the sponge. its a good sign i think

 

[tizzo]

Did they look like this??

 

[tizzo]

bump

 

[sly]

:joy:

 

[tizzo]

Is that what they looked like?? Cause that's regular ol' mysis shrimp.

 

[sly]

Yes. I also feed my fish frozen mysis shrimp. I wonder if there were some eggs in the food that could have hatched...

 

[tizzo]

Nah, that stuff comes in on the live rock. I have millions of them and I didn't ever purposly add any.

 

[ryand]

well i would do that... if they bread faster then the fish could eat them but still stay under control that would be awsome:jumping: :joy:

 

[sly]

The thing I've wondered is how do people keep mandarine fish? I had one once and it seemed to eat all the pods I had in my tank. Then it died. What's a mandarine going to eat when it runs out of pods? Where do you get more from?

 

[tizzo]

They are supposed to multiply before the mandarin can eat them all... How much LR do you have?? I am asking because now you got me worried.:nervous:

 

[sly]

I have about 30 lbs... maybe 40. I need to add more.

 

[tizzo]

You had me worried!! I have at least 160 pounds so I hope I am OK. The tanks been established for a while but I got him because I got brown flatworms. I don't see the flatworms anymore so I think he's eating them.:notsure: Aaaahh well, who knows. But yeah, you need a LOT more LR. I often read you need at least 100 lbs!