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... and now i have hundreds of tiny little shrimp floating around in my nano reef (mini bow 7). has anyone else had this happen? has anyone had success w/ growing out these little guys? my mom is keen on saving them. any help is appreciated, like how to feed etc. thanks!

tank mates are some hermits and snails, and a green banded goby. corals are some hammerhead, a rose BTA (thanks dad), feather duster, zoos, and a tiny frag of xenia.

What did the shrimp look like?

While it is possible that your shrimp had babies, I would lean more towards mysis shrimp swimming around your tank.

A description of what they look like, color, size, etc. would help out quite a bit.

actually, i'm quite sure they are my cleaner shrimp. i have two, and one of them hid under the powerhead for some time. it wouldn't even come out for feedings. then last night i noticed tiny little shrimp, maybe about .5cm or smaller, all around the tank. i also noticed that the cleaner shrimp was flailing her legs every couple of seconds, and some baby shrimp would come out. furthermore, i could see many tiny little eyes inbetween all her legs. i tried to get as many baby shrimp into a breeder net as i could then i went to bed. this morning, i can only see about 5 baby shrimps in the breeder net, and both of my cleaner shrimp have molted.

anyways, the shrimp are very tiny, and virtually transparent save for their eyes and a tiny green dot on their body, probably their organs. am i correct, are these cleaner shrimp babes?

With the way the cleaners are acting then yes, you are most likely correct. As far as feeding them, I believe it is pretty tough to do. Most either end up as fish or coral food, and those that dont will have a hard time finding food small enough for them.......especially in a tank as small as yours.

You might want to do a search on maintaining rotifer cultures and breeding lysmata amboinensis on the internet.. WetWebMedia]http://wetwebmedia.com/[/link] and [link=The Breeder's Registry are two places I'd probably start..

While I doubt you'll be able to save this particular batch of skunks, if you know how to care for the next batch it's possible to have some success..

Good Luck to you..

thanks for the tips - i think that somehow most got out of the breeder net and into...who knows what. i've been feeding them some chroma plex (same thing i'm feeding my feather duster). i'll try hatching some baby brine tonight and i'll see how that goes.

oh btw those links were really helpful, thanks