Larval mantis shrimp?!

[razorskiss]

I found what I think is a male N. wennerae on some live rock from TBS a while back and set up a dedicated species tank for it. It's been a few months and I recently noticed a tiny long white creature swimming around. After taking it out with a pipette, here's what it looks like:

Do I actually have a female? Is there a 2nd mantis somewhere and they're mating? How long do the eggs take to hatch? Are they capable of parthenogenesis?

 

[bluemon]

wow, that actually does look like a baby mantis and not a random crustacean.

But my bet is on that the baby came on the live rock you got from TBS, and not that it spawned. I think you would notice a second wennerae in there (or at least the male one would), and you would notice the spawning.

 

[razorskiss]

The rock was sourced 2 months ago, I have no idea about the developmental progression of N. wennerae but that seems like a long time for an invert egg to hatch or for a microscopic larva to grow to this stage.

 

[razorskiss]

@LiverockRocks , have you folks ever seen anything like this?

 

[bluemon]

The rock was sourced 2 months ago, I have no idea about the developmental progression of N. wennerae but that seems like a long time for an invert egg to hatch or for a microscopic larva to grow to this stage.

I think 2 months is just the right timeframe for this?

It seems like it is quite far along its crustacean lifecycle. IDK about stomatopods specifically, but most crustaceans go through a pelagic naupili phase first, and it seems like it's at least past its pelagic stages and is onto its postlarval stages?

Here is a good picture I found. It seems like it's somewhere in the 3.5 stage on the bottom pic.

Riverview Science / Derek Holec Mantis Shrimp

 

[Tired]

Interesting! I'd agree it probably came in on its own. I vote you put it back in (so it can hunt) and see what it does.

 

[bluemon]

Interesting! I'd agree it probably came in on its own. I vote you put it back in (so it can hunt) and see what it does.

I feel like the adult wennare will eat it at one point then.

I say you set up a little acclimation box within the tank and see if it takes brine shrimp.

Not sure how big the baby is, but maybe it will take it?

Also curious how out of proportion the Antennal Scale is at this point in its life stage.

That thing is HUGE

 

[Biota_Marine]

I found what I think is a male N. wennerae on some live rock from TBS a while back and set up a dedicated species tank for it. It's been a few months and I recently noticed a tiny long white creature swimming around. After taking it out with a pipette, here's what it looks like:

Do I actually have a female? Is there a 2nd mantis somewhere and they're mating? How long do the eggs take to hatch? Are they capable of parthenogenesis?

It does look pretty similar to mantis shrimp larvae I've seen. The front is throwing me off a bit but the species I worked with were colder water. Females can store sperm and you'd usually see them fanning the eggs for quite a bit before hatching some species can hold on to them for like a month.

 

[razorskiss]

The adult is still quite small, not even an inch long and the tank has lots of rock and surface area (it's a super shallow 10g). I don't have the space to add a tank so I added the larva back in and will hope it survives long enough that I can catch it and either trade it in or start up yet another tank lol. Got some better shots of it's ventral surface including the developing clubs (tucked up right behind the eyes)

 

[razorskiss]

I also figure that since it's survived to this point it's more likely to successfully feed in the tank compared to baby brine or other prepared foods

 

[Tired]

Aww, look at the little clubs!

I know mantids are territorial, but hopefully they'll ignore each other until this one is large enough to be fed deliberately and won't need to hunt its own pods. Once it's big enough for that, you could always pop it in a breeder box.

 

[twentyleagues]

There have been a couple threads on this lately its an amphipod of some sort. I cant remember what the name is currently. They are beneficial from what I remember.

 

[razorskiss]

Hm, you may be right, the proportions seem all wrong compared to the stage IV and VIII wennerae larva pictured in this paper:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323782633_Morphology_of_stomatopod_larvae_from_National_Parks_Sistema_Arrecifal_Veracruzano_and_Arrecife_Puerto_Morelos_Mexico

 

[Alexraptor]

I think the main giveaway that it's not a larval mantis, are the legs. Those are fully functional legs on the abdomen, mantis shrimps don't have legs that extend that far back, they have pleopods.

 

[bluemon]

There have been a couple threads on this lately its an amphipod of some sort. I cant remember what the name is currently. They are beneficial from what I remember.

Do you remember what they were?

I remember these very long shrimps that anchored themselves to rock and had these mantis-shrimp like spears, but cannot for the life of me remember their names.

EDIT: They were skeleton shrimps! but these don't seem to be skeleton shrimps

 

[twentyleagues]

Do you remember what they were?

I remember these very long shrimps that anchored themselves to rock and had these mantis-shrimp like spears, but cannot for the life of me remember their names.

EDIT: They were skeleton shrimps! but these don't seem to be skeleton shrimps

Tanaids

 

[bluemon]

Tanaids

That's what they were! also quite similar to the skeleton shrimp.

But doesn't really look like what OP has. The big antennal scale and the lack of anchoring claws really give it away.

Does anyone know if Dr.Roy is still around? He used to be on RC for all the stomatopod questions