Unknown Hitchhikers

[stanleo]

So I got some endler's today at the LFS and I got a fry in the bag with them. He's about 2 or 3mm long and grey but the body looks like an endler's. I hope it's not a female cause I really don't want to deal with that, as cool as it think I would be. The hitchhikers I am not happy about look 2 tiny shrimp stuck together. They are so small I can't tell for sure if they are shrimp or not. 1mm long and grayish color. At first I thought they were some kind of bug.
 
pic of the baby

 
 
pic of the shrimp like creature that I don't know what it is. If anyone has any idea please let me know

 
 
It slipped out of the bag when I put the fish in so I watched and it buried itself in the substrate.

 

[This Old Spouse]

Well, that shoots my theory of shrimp shed. 

 

[stanleo]

oh yeah it would moving like crazy in the bag. I hope I can keep the fry alive. He's so cute.

 

[Chad]

Those are amphipods.
 
There are marine and freshwater types. I have literally thousands of them. Fish love to eat the larvae and they provide a nice live mean for them. They are harmless to fish and plants and beneficial as scavengers.
 
Here's an article on them http/www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-09/rs/index.php.
 
They are usually just called pods and some people call them scuds or gamma shrimp though they are certainly not actually shrimp. This last name comes from the name Gammaridean amphipod.

 

[stanleo]

Ok these amphipods are breeding and they are really ugly. I started out with the 2 hitchers and now there are 10 that I can see at a time. Is there anything I can do to get rid of them. The tank has 3 endler guppies, 100+RCS and I just introduced 6 pygmy corys. With the corys eat them?

 

[DrRob]

They should do, it's pretty much what they eat in the wild.

 

[Chad]

They are actually beneficial scavengers that eat detritus. Every week or two I suck my reef tank with them because the fish love the larvae. It's worth getting used to the look to have them in your tank.

 

[Sophie]

I freaked out when I first took a real close look into my tank. Tiny bugs everywhere, I had what was called cyclops Yours are much cuter Good snack for your fish!