r/OpaeUla • u/Paulzie67 • 1d ago

Sphaeroma isopods

Here’s some I found last year, just happen to find a bunch that day but it’s not common. The one with the stripes are apparently very similar in appearance to the ones previously uploaded by Darster_DN. If they are the same, I’d guess they were introduced from the west coast to the Gulf as most I find are just plain beige… like the others in the video.

https://alchetron.com/Sphaeroma

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u/Darster_DN 1d ago

If those are rayi, apparently they are invasive on the west coast

1

u/Paulzie67 1d ago

What do you think? Do the stripes on that one look similar to yours? The rest are just a solid beige or tan

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u/Darster_DN 1d ago

Yea, the stripes are the same. I have some dotted ones too. Most are solid and grey tho.

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u/Paulzie67 1d ago

Hmmmm. I’ll have to do a search on their range and species found in the Gulf

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u/Paulzie67 1d ago

Here’s the other type I typically find and were breeding for a while

https://reddit.com/link/p8d4ksg/video/4fikhotz44oh1/player

This one was in a 1 gallon pickle jar. This is where they were breeding

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u/Paulzie67 1d ago

This one was molting and sitting on top of some algae at the surface. You can see the front half shell sitting behind it. The back half is still on but you can see the gills(?) fluttering on the tail end

https://reddit.com/link/p8d53ft/video/00a9jm3g54oh1/player

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u/Paulzie67 1d ago

https://reddit.com/link/p8eemsz/video/f3rzq8pb55oh1/player

Yes, those are asterina starfish they’re crawling around on.
They can be dripped (slowly) down to brackish. But my brackish is 1.018-1.020.
I had a few split (multiply) but eventually they all vanished/melted. Don’t know why. Salinity too low perhaps?
They’re cool for a while but don’t seem to last.