Shrimp Hitchhiker?

Hello everyone,

So every night before i go to sleep, i grab a flashlight and check out my reef aquarium, when the lights are off. I always discover something new. However, last night i discovered something really strange. I looked at a hole, and i noticed some medium sized antenna coming out of a hole in a live rock. I dimmed the flashlight and waited for something to pop out of the hole. A small cute little white head popped up. My first though was "Great, now i have a mantis shrimp" but i inspected it further, and i couldnt really identify the shrimp. It was greyish or white, and it had antennae. It didnt have any claws as long as i could see, it just basically looked like a giant amphipod or something. It was probably about 5 - 6 cm long. I've never seen the shrimp before, and my tank is 3 months old. Apparently, it only pops up at night. Have anyone had a similar shrimp in their tank? If so, what is it? Is it reef safe?

 

I think it's going to be hard to ID without a picture which I'm sure will be near impossible to get......maybe try looking it up on a hitch-hiker thread. I know Corailline has a good site. Perhaps she could post it.....

 

Unless the antennae are "forked", and fairly short, your critter likely isn't a mantis. In fact, you'd likely see a pair of eyes peeking out of the hole rather than antennae if it's a Stomatopod. Do you hear any clicking/popping at night?

Here are some pix of a couple of our mantids for reference:









Without a photo, it's pretty hard to hazard a guess as to the ID, but I'd be thinking pistol shrimp from your description, as they sit with their antennae sticking out of their lairs, unless they have a shrimp goby room mate, at which point they sit with one antennae out and one in contact with the fish.

 

I have never heard clicking or popping at night in my tank, which is the reason i dont think its a mantis. I only see antennae popping out, it doesnt have those huge eyes as a mantis shrimp

 

I'm thinking he has amphipods, which are good!

 

Didn't see this before! lol That would be a Large amphipod.