Are these copepods? Shrimp only tank

[tk_yt]

Hello! I keep the sides of my tank unscraped to keep the algae for the baby shrimp to eat.  Today I noticed quite a few tiny little crawlers, I thought they were tiny shrimplets first, but I think these are copepods?  They are harmless right? Just wanted to check with the others who are more knowledgeable in this area.

I plan to add chili rasbora pretty soon once my neocaridina population gets bigger, so hopefully the numbers will dwindle.  

[Tlindsey]

On 10/18/2024 at 3:22 PM, tk_yt said:

Hello! I keep the sides of my tank unscraped to keep the algae for the baby shrimp to eat.  Today I noticed quite a few tiny little crawlers, I thought they were tiny shrimplets first, but I think these are copepods?  They are harmless right? Just wanted to check with the others who are more knowledgeable in this area.

I plan to add chili rasbora pretty soon once my neocaridina population gets bigger, so hopefully the numbers will dwindle.  

Definitely copepods aka cyclops.

[Mississippi fish guy]

Definitely copepods. They are harmless though I have read on the forum that they might over populate if there is too much food. Chili rasboras would definitely eat them though so even if they over populate the chilis would eat them once you add them.