Do copepods eat baby brine shrimps?

[Levinson]

Does anyone know if the benthic copepods would prey on the newly hatched brine shrimps?

I've been attempting to raise sexy shrimp larvae in a pseudo kreisel tank for a while.
Some benthic copepods got introduced into the kreisel tank (somehow) and I thought they might work as potential live food for the shrimp larvae or if not, at least work as clean up crew. After a while, their population have exploded (so I highly doubt they were being eaten) and I started to notice the baby brine shrimps, that I feed to the shrimp larvae, started to disappear at much much faster rate (when compared to when there weren't thousands of pods).
Not too long after, my shrimp larvae batch died out. The batch may have died out for a different reason but do you think the copepods might've been eating the baby brine shrimps?
I didn't think it possible at first since the copepods were only a little bigger than the BBS but now I'm not so sure.
I don't know the exact kind of the copepods they are but they are benthic and there seem to be at least 2 different kinds.

 

[F i s h y]

Yes, copepods are opportunistic feeders. They will certainly eat baby brine I given the chance. I would recommend draining and disinfecting your brooding tank and starting over to ensure success.

 

[Levinson]

Yes, copepods are opportunistic feeders. They will certainly eat baby brine I given the chance. I would recommend draining and disinfecting your brooding tank and starting over to ensure success.

Thanks! I was suspicious of those little guys. Would've been awesome if the shrimp larvae ate them which doesn't seem to be the case.

 

[SaltBabies]

They absolutely eat bbs and as you can see thrive in the presence of the extra protein.

However I wouldn't get rid of them unless you see them being predatory with your shrimp. Sexy are small so it's possible.

I know the bethnic copepods have pelagic small nauplii which makes them good food. My peppermint shrimp love a copepod bbs mix. If you get a ton of copepods you can always suck the bottom which tends to get the adult copepods.

Did you check your ammonia? I know that bbs can create a lot of ammonia.

 

[Levinson]

They absolutely eat bbs and as you can see thrive in the presence of the extra protein.

However I wouldn't get rid of them unless you see them being predatory with your shrimp. Sexy are small so it's possible.

I know the bethnic copepods have pelagic small nauplii which makes them good food. My peppermint shrimp love a copepod bbs mix. If you get a ton of copepods you can always suck the bottom which tends to get the adult copepods.

Did you check your ammonia? I know that bbs can create a lot of ammonia.

Thank you for the valuable feedback kizanne.
The sexy babies weren't being eaten by the copepods as far as I could tell. The size difference between them were pretty big too.
I've tested for ammonia before and I was getting 0 but I'm also aware it could be due to the flow and they could still be the cause of the trouble. I didn't know the brine shrimps were dirty little buggers that produce much ammonia though.
I'm sill experimenting (and failing) raising the babies and I will try some copepods along with the bbs for the next batch.