Ajmal C
Member
Hello everybody,
So I believe I have a weird issue. I have these small (upto 1/4 of an inch) side ways crawling shrimp that have these praying mantis shaped front appendages as part of my clean up crew. They also have lots of power in their swimming strides. I used to love them cuz they used to jump on any item of food that used to drop to the sand. I guess when I had about 7 fish that ate like pigs they used to get a lot of food. Now I only have 3 fish and I feed very little. They eat everything from the algae on the glass to meat that hits the sand bed. They also aggressively fight amongst each other.
Lately they have multiplied tenfold and are everywhere, what bothers me is that they are now walking over my zoas and palys. They usually eat any weak or dying zoanthid polyps. I recently acquired some Blue Agave PE and Red PE palys from Aquapros (love that place) and I keep finding the shrimp perched on them, and possibly feeding on them. I saw one atop my red PE paly and I tried to fend it off with a chopstick but the little bugger stayed its ground, even after I was hitting it, finally it gave in and crawled under the frag disc, they didn't used to be this balsy. The palys opened in my tank almost immediately, have had them for a few days now, but with repeat irritation they stay closed for hours now. I've seen these shrimp feed on a few dying polyps of zoas occasionally, but now I am guessing these opportunistic feeders are targeting my favorite palys, they don't get fed as much as they used too when my old system was up and running. They even attack the big grazing snails at times. Has anyone had this problem before?
A second problem are these encrusting snails that encrust on rock or even through some unhealthy SPS. They stay sessile for a while and release these long strings of mucous to trap and reel in food, this didn't used to be a problem before but now, with less feeding (I'm guessing) they send out their mucous strings more often and for longer. The strings irritate the zoas and palys a lot.
Here are some pics of the shrimp and snail in my tank.
Pics of the shrimp:
View attachment 6364
View attachment 6365
View attachment 6367
This is another pic taken from another forum: http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/general-reef-aquarium-discussion/80389-tiny-shrimp-under-microscope-mantis.html. Discussing if they are mantis shrimp or not, hope not :S. But here is a pic
View attachment 6368
link to a bigger pic:http://postimg.org/image/y3j8srw6t/6bbdc6a5/
Pic of the snail, the long string of mucous can be seen projecting from the snail to the top left of the image
View attachment 6366
So I am pleading with you CR to please help me identify these guys and offer up any solutions. I was thinking of getting a species of Wrasse OR a Dragonet like a Mandarin to feed on them or even just harass them with their presence. Was also thinking of using a simple DIY Trap made with a water bottle, cut off the conical top, inversely insert and glue it on so it would kind of be one way traffic inwards, then I would quickly pull it out of the water.
Any suggestions and ideas would be greatly appreciated, this zoanthid lover would be deeply indebted to you.
So I believe I have a weird issue. I have these small (upto 1/4 of an inch) side ways crawling shrimp that have these praying mantis shaped front appendages as part of my clean up crew. They also have lots of power in their swimming strides. I used to love them cuz they used to jump on any item of food that used to drop to the sand. I guess when I had about 7 fish that ate like pigs they used to get a lot of food. Now I only have 3 fish and I feed very little. They eat everything from the algae on the glass to meat that hits the sand bed. They also aggressively fight amongst each other.
Lately they have multiplied tenfold and are everywhere, what bothers me is that they are now walking over my zoas and palys. They usually eat any weak or dying zoanthid polyps. I recently acquired some Blue Agave PE and Red PE palys from Aquapros (love that place) and I keep finding the shrimp perched on them, and possibly feeding on them. I saw one atop my red PE paly and I tried to fend it off with a chopstick but the little bugger stayed its ground, even after I was hitting it, finally it gave in and crawled under the frag disc, they didn't used to be this balsy. The palys opened in my tank almost immediately, have had them for a few days now, but with repeat irritation they stay closed for hours now. I've seen these shrimp feed on a few dying polyps of zoas occasionally, but now I am guessing these opportunistic feeders are targeting my favorite palys, they don't get fed as much as they used too when my old system was up and running. They even attack the big grazing snails at times. Has anyone had this problem before?
A second problem are these encrusting snails that encrust on rock or even through some unhealthy SPS. They stay sessile for a while and release these long strings of mucous to trap and reel in food, this didn't used to be a problem before but now, with less feeding (I'm guessing) they send out their mucous strings more often and for longer. The strings irritate the zoas and palys a lot.
Here are some pics of the shrimp and snail in my tank.
Pics of the shrimp:
View attachment 6364
View attachment 6365
View attachment 6367
This is another pic taken from another forum: http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/general-reef-aquarium-discussion/80389-tiny-shrimp-under-microscope-mantis.html. Discussing if they are mantis shrimp or not, hope not :S. But here is a pic
View attachment 6368
link to a bigger pic:http://postimg.org/image/y3j8srw6t/6bbdc6a5/
Pic of the snail, the long string of mucous can be seen projecting from the snail to the top left of the image
View attachment 6366
So I am pleading with you CR to please help me identify these guys and offer up any solutions. I was thinking of getting a species of Wrasse OR a Dragonet like a Mandarin to feed on them or even just harass them with their presence. Was also thinking of using a simple DIY Trap made with a water bottle, cut off the conical top, inversely insert and glue it on so it would kind of be one way traffic inwards, then I would quickly pull it out of the water.
Any suggestions and ideas would be greatly appreciated, this zoanthid lover would be deeply indebted to you.
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