So many copepods!

[Andy Pierce]

Maybe because of the warmer summer weather, but the copepod population in my (nominally) 22L cherry-shrimp-only tank has gone ballistic.

They don't seem to bother the bloody mary shrimp, snails or plants, but neither are the shrimp (or snails) remotely interested in the copepods as a food source.

Understanding that the answer might well be "forget it", I was wondering if there were suggestions for a very small fish that might enjoy the ample free water column snacks, that wouldn't overtly prefer to eat baby shrimp instead and that would be ok in such a small nano-tank. The water is Cambridgeshire hard (18 dKH dGH), unheated, and has pretty good flow throughout.

 

[SteveMid]

I keep a small shoal of reed tetras in with my cherry shrimp. The shrimp population is stable with new arrivals all the time. They don’t ever seem to bother them. However, when I occasionally put water daphnia in they hoover them up so could be an option for you. Might have to check on suitability for hard water though as I have very soft tap water here in Manchester my tank is at about 6-7 dGH

 

[Liam]

Thats amazing, I wonder why there are so many. I have had a lot of ostracods in shrimp tanks but never that many copepods. They seem to eat anything I give the shrimp so I expect they do compete with the shrimplets. If you ever get any chance fry they would thrive in that shrimp tank. You could syphon them out with a water change and give them to your fish. Danionella dracula are the only non suckermouth fish I have found to be completely shrimp safe.