Are these copepods?

[Rodolfo Garcia]

About 2 months ago i added some copepods 5280 from algaebarn and have been dosing the tank religiously. From what I can see the copepods from algaebarn include benthic (rock dwelling) and pelagic (free-swimming) copepods. I was under the assumption these were the free swimming kind but people are telling me these are not copepods but instead baby fish or crustaceans. I want to mention that i have no breeding pair of fish. My clowns are like 4 months old. Only breeding animal i can think of in my tank are the hermit crabs.
Are these copepods? They only come out at night time.
View attachment 20250917_103723_AAC846F1-5D18-49F4-A8D8-F0A91BFDBEA0.mov

 

[Rodolfo Garcia]

Dosing the tank with phytoplankton religiously*

 

[kevgib67]

Too big to be copepods . I’ve had hermit crabs larvae bloom in my tank but they were in the water column and looked like baby shrimp, my fish were going nuts. I would have to go with hermits based on what you have in the tank and perhaps a different species than I have. @ISpeakForTheSeas ?

 

[Rodolfo Garcia]

Too big to be copepods . I’ve had hermit crabs larvae bloom in my tank but they were in the water column and looked like baby shrimp, my fish were going nuts. I would have to go with hermits based on what you have in the tank and perhaps a different species than I have. @ISpeakForTheSeas ?

I’ve never seen eggs in my tank before so i was assuming they were a free swimming form of copepod. Regardless my mandarin who doesnt eat frozen is alive for about 2 months now. Safe to assume he’s eating something i guess

 

[Joe Kennedy]

Look like fish fry to me.

Any updates?

 

[Paul B]

Those are not copepods. They are baby shrimp or hermit crabs and they spawn constantly.