Small pink fish?

[amortlan]

I am four weeks into cycling my first saltwater tank (75 gallon). I have roughly 50 lbs of live rock, and am constantly finding new creatures.

Earlier this week I turned the lights on late at night, after they had been out for several hours. When I looked around, to my amazement, I saw between 5 and 10 small pink fish. When I say small, I mean about 1/4 to 1/2 inch long.

I've seen them every night now. They swim very fast, and tend to stick to the holes in my LR. They will occasionally venture out from the rocks.

I went back to my LFS and looked at the tank I had bought the LR from. There is a mated pair of maroon clowns who, incidentally, were very protective when I went to get more rock from their tank...

My question is, what are the chances these little fish would have survived the trip from the LFS to my tank? What can I do to ensure they stay alive? I don't have any fish in my tank yet, so there isn't much in the way of predators. What are the odds of baby clowns lasting in a new tank?

 

[Anonymous]

I am willing to bet they are mysis shrimp, which are very nice critters to have. People often mistake them for baby fish. If that is indeed what they are, they will breed freely in you tank and provide a good source of natural food for your fish, until they all get eaten!

 

[HK StYle]

do u have a pic of the so called "pink small fish"?? :twisted:

 

[Reefguide]

IMO, they are too big to have hatched in your tank and too large to be clown hitchikers I think. To get 10 clown hitchickers in LR is impossible IMO. Would be nice though. I'm with the shrimp!

 

[Anemone]

Ditto on the above. Maroon clown larvae aren't pink, and even if you somehow got a rock full of clown eggs that hatched, the larvae would be dead within 24 hours due to a lack of food.

I'm with the rest in betting on mysid shrimp.

Kevin

 

[danmhippo]

I have hundreds of those mysid shrimps in my tank, aka "little pink fish". Run a suction hose down to where they are and siphon some out to a shallow pan, you will see it's shrimp, not fish.

 

[Minh Nguyen]

They, mysis shrimps, look like a pair of red eyes cruzing around.