Something hatched in my tank???

[sammyjoe]

Hello all,well I am kinda new at this salt water fish tank stuff,i've had my tank up and going for a few months.Anyhow today I bought a new piece of live rock and I didn't notice till tonight while looking into the tank with a flashlight but I have all these very tiny hatchings floating around in my tank.
They are too small to take a picture of but they are shaped like a fish,clear with black eyes.No legs on these critters.I tried looking for a identifying picture somewhere and the closest thing I can find is baby brine shrimp but brine shrimp don't lay eggs on rocks do they??Anyhow if anyone could possibly give me some insight that would be great.Oh and they are swimming if that perhaps helps.

 

[apos]

Do you have hermit crabs? Two of mine have reproduced just in the last two weeks: their larvae appear to have no legs, and they sort of float around periodically "popping" here and there.
Pic of closeup:
http://norb.homedns.org/nwp/storycod.../large-68.html
If this is what it is, and you're lucky, you can catch momma releasing them: she'll sort of leap halfway out of her shell and back again, and you'll see what look like a hive of tiny bees on her rear, some of which will fly off each time.
Fairly unlikely that any larval stage of anything (well, anything good, sigh) will live to adulthood in your tank and hermit babies are no exception. If the skimmer and filters don't get them, then at least they'll be a tasty treat for your fish. My clown was quite happy to see them.

 

[sammyjoe]

yes I have lots of hermit crabs,i had three and bought two more today not to mention the five hermit hitchikers that came on my new rocks so it is possible that one of them had eggs.Thanks so much for the info thats great.I looked at the picture and they do kind of look like that except i do not see red on them at all.Of course they are way too tiny to see much of anything.Thanks guess we will see if any survive which I doubt because I have a few fish and a brittlestar.

 

[apos]

The red is probably species specific: mine didn't really have any color other than a dark line in the middle of their bodies (their gut).
If you want them to have any hope of survival, you'd need to feed them fine micron plankton, but honestly, I wouldn't bother. They have a long and complex life cycle and I've never heard of anyone ever getting them to adulthood without very special conditions set up beforehand. If you see anything swimming around that looks sort of like a tiny lobster, you're farther along than most people ever see, but the chances are just very very slim for this.
Watch your fish over the next few days, and you may see them gobbling up invisible things from time to time. It's a better way to go than a protein skimmer or other filter media!

 

[earlybird]

pods

 

[renogaw]

Originally Posted by Sammyjoe
yes I have lots of hermit crabs,i had three and bought two more today not to mention the five hermit hitchikers .
i just wanted to say that i thought this was a little funny i have over 40 hermits just be careful with what hermits you buy, some are good, some are bad. keep an eye out for zebra hermits (they have black legs with white going up them), they are more aggressive than normal hermits

 

[yosemite sam]

Do you have any shrimp in your tank? My cleaner shrimp reproduce from time to time.

 

[lecithin]

Originally Posted by Yosemite Sam
Do you have any shrimp in your tank? My cleaner shrimp reproduce from time to time.
Really? I was wondering if they would in a tank.... thats awesome! What do you do with the babies?

 

[yosemite sam]

Originally Posted by Lecithin
What do you do with the babies?
My fish eat them. You can try to raise them, I think there are a few posts about it on the board, but it is difficult.

 

[sammyjoe]

No i don't have any kind of shrimp yet,little by little I am adding stuff to the tank being it's only been up for a about 3 months but so far everything is doing really good for my first time.I have managed to keep everything alive except on hermit crab that died shortly after adding him to the tank.
Just found out though that I am moving literally across the country in 9 months so debating even if I want to add anything else.I will probably add more then just sell them before I leave and start over when I hit California haha.