My New Hitchhikers

[LxOxSxI]

So... I finally manned up and bought a BEAUTIFUL 17.73lb rock for my 14g biocube. It came with red leg hermit... or so I thought...

When they packed the rock they lined a styrofoam container with a plastic trash bag, lined the bottom with newspaper, partially filled with h20, put the rock in, then topped with newspaper again. Looked... fine i guess. When I got home about 10 mins later, it was a struggle getting damp newspaper off the rock before I submerged it (newer tank). I noticed it came with a hermit and had no choice to put him in with the rock, unaware of my 'cycles' progress.

The next morning i wondered if any lil bugs/critters fell off and were sitting in the box, so i started sifting through that swap water with degrading newspaper and leeching ink. Didn't find much but some little rubble that had broke off, i suspect, during transport. Then my heart sank, I saw a carcass of a shrimp that was nearly transparent and looked flacid. I went to pick it out and it kicked and scurried! I screamed like a little school girl! . After running around in circles scratching my head on a procedure, I came up with getting a 1/2 cup measuring cup to get him out with. Then I got the trickle plate from chamber 2 in the biocube to set him on to rinse the swap water off of him. After 3-4 showers I put him in the tank.

He descended to the bottom and found a warm welcome to his previous home and has been doing a side-to-side dance for the last 24 hours, non stop, in fact. He has wandered around some too and gained alot of color back too. I haven't seen him eat though, whereas the hermit is chowing all my nice algae .

My question is.. should I supplement the shrimp with some morsels of something?

after battling that swap water and 65 degree temps at best, for no less than 10 hours, please give a warm welcome to 'Sarge'

 

[SkiFletch]

What kind of shrimp is sarge? Any idea? You could try a mysid shrimp or two and see if he's hungry

 

[LxOxSxI]

after going through camel vs. peppermint shrimp pics i'm 99% confident he's peppermint... He doesn't like light much but if you get close to the glass he comes to stare at you as if to say "that's my stomach you hear, not the overflow!"...

edit:

Thanks, I'll try some mysid tomorrow.

 

[LxOxSxI]

front:

left side:

Sarge was camera shy at the time... but you can see the crab. Also, the 3 bleached rocks are just resting on the big one, not part of it.

 

[sianeds]

Thats a BIG rock! Good idea getting one big rock though. I think I'll do the same when I set up my new nano in the next week or so Looking good though. Lots of holes to slot corals into if that's the direction you'll be taking.

 

[LxOxSxI]

Thats a BIG rock! Good idea getting one big rock though. I think I'll do the same when I set up my new nano in the next week or so Looking good though. Lots of holes to slot corals into if that's the direction you'll be taking.

Thanks!

shrooms and zoa's eventually, and we'll see how that goes first

 

[leo77]

Looking good there LOSI, I had the same issue with them shrimps. The guy at the not so favorite LFS sold me a Camel shrimp and claimed it was a Peppermint, well it died 5 day later and so I went back to the shop and gave it back to him...he wasnt very impresed with me. I heard though that he doesnt quarintine his stock much.

 

[LxOxSxI]

What is this? I spot fed it a mysis and it loved it... (it's about 3/4 the size of a mysis too, mostly)

 

[LxOxSxI]

bump for possible id

 

[leo77]

is it that small button looking like pinkish thingy just before the end tip of the rock?

 

[LxOxSxI]

yes, it's kina pink

 

[leo77]

maybe a single polyp head in its first stage of growing...not sure.

 

[LxOxSxI]

it has a bunch of tentacles and the tips glow at night... once in a while they will get really long too, as in the time i fed it. I found it one time with the center hanging WAY out of it (in comaprison to it's body size) attaching to another similar one but much smaller than itself.

So:
-It's kinda pink at the bottom to clearish towards the top with verticle striping of the pink color.
-has tenticles
-tenticles are sticky
-tenticles can lengthen considerably
-tenticles tips glow at night
-will eat mysis shrimp
-has a center 'tongue-like' thing that ventures from time to time

that's about all i know for now.

 

[@ombomb]

If it's actually attached to the rock, I think I have one.

No idea what it is though I'm afraid, but it's never caused any problems!

 

[LxOxSxI]

how big is yours? Mines around the size of a pencil eraser maybe a hair bigger...
How long have you had it?