ID: Baby Peppermint Shrimp?

[atreis]

I found this critter in my fuge tonight... He's about 3mm long. (Those green things around him are caulerpa.) I suspect Peppermint because I have four of them living in there.

<img src="http://www.atreis.com/babyshrimp-mar2005.jpg">

[bertoni]

Maybe, but it's much more likely to be some sort of mysid shrimp. Baby peppermints won't last long in a reef tank.

[vince R]

Sure looks like a Pep though. They usually dont last long in aquaria because 1 something eats them 2 they have nothing to eat and starve. 3 getting sucked into a powerhead, filtration or some other device. So as Jonathon said "maybe" but not at all out of the realm of possibility. Would be cool if it was though. Good luck.

[bertoni]

Could be a baby hitchhiker, too, for that matter.

[atreis]

It's in the refugium. (75 gallon slow-flow fuge, no pumps or powerheads, just an overflow that allows water to return to the main tank by gravity.) I don't know of anything in there that would eat it. Aside from algae and pods, about all that's in there are a couple blue legs, a larger crab that was a pest in the main tank, the four peppermints, one camel back, and an urchin.

[vince R]

That was what I meant. In a fuge the reasons for them not surviving are not as great. So it is possible or like Jonathon said could be a hitchiker too.