Tiny Shrimp
 

Today I was looking in my tank (75 gallon, 90# live rock, Sand bottom, I have had it running for about 3 weeks now) and I noticed something darting in and out of one of my rocks. I looked closer and it appeared to be a tiny clear shrimp. Whats weird is that it was coming out to grab a piece of the aragonite sand and take it back into the rock with it. I picked up 40 pounds of the rock from a LFS and 50 pounds of it from a guy who had 3 tanks running that he was piecing out. The shrimp seems to be living in one of the rocks that I bought from this guy. Anyway the shrimp is only about 1/8 in long and moves really fast. Any guesses as to what it would be? I would take a picture but it would be basically impossible due to its size and speed.

Does it look kinda like this (but a different color)?

[IMG]http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/arthropoda/crustacea/malacostraca/eumalacostraca/royslist/images/h_hamifera1.jpg[/IMG]

If so it is a small mantis shrimp. Far too small to cause any harm and won't hurt a thing (cept maybe some pods).

Dan

my guess is a type of pod...(copepod)

Yeah, now that you mention it it sounds like a amphipod.

Dan

Does it run/swim around in circles? I have tiny saltwater mysis shrimp that do that. Harmless. Pea-brain has mantis on the brain. :)

Its could possibly a small hitchhiking pistol shrimp...... I read another post about some guy that found 2 in his tank.

Do small pistol shrimp make noise? It seems that I read somewhere that they do. Like a clicking?