I think something else instead of triops hatched...

[aqua.land]

Hello,
I've recently bought a triop hatching set...
After many months of quiet movement, suddenly my tank is filled with tons of tiny little white dots, swimming around all over the place.
At first I thought these were triops, but since they do not grow, I realised they weren't...
Triops can actually be quite big, but these cute little dots are something else whatsoever.
They are around 1mm in size, and do not grow. I have searched for fairy shrimp, daphnia, clam shrimps but I don't think any of those are these creatures.
I know there are some pretty experienced people here, so I thought I might ask.

Does anyone know what they might be?

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

Will you please upload a photo of these "triops"?

 

[aqua.land]

Hello, Thank you!
Yes. Here it is. The water is quite dirty...they seem to be eating stuff from it. I don't really feed them but occasionally sprinkle some triop food.
I hope you can see in the photo, they are very tiny.

 

[CassCats]

Probably copepods. Totally normal little creatures.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Probably copepods. Totally normal little creatures.

I have no clue how a copepods got into a triop kit.

Did you buy them as a kit? Or as eggs?

 

[dmpfishlover]

Looks like they could be amphipods (closely related to a copepods) they are found in almost all aquatic environments and range in size from a millimeter to around 13 inches (usually marine species are larger). They are detritivores or scavengers feeding off of decaying organic matter. They kind of look like shrimp, but usually much smaller.

 

[CassCats]

Copepods show up without any introduction to our tanks. Its like they magically appear haha. Truthfully i think sometimes they just come from either microscopic young or eggs naturally within the water and grow.

Other times introduced contaminated on plants or gravel from other sources.

 

[dmpfishlover]

I have no clue how a copepods got into a triop kit.

Did you buy them as a kit? Or as eggs?

If it came as a kit in liquid, the copepods or amphipods could have already been in the water that they were raising the triops in.

 

[CassCats]

Kinda like fruit flies. Where the heck do they even start

 

[Retired Viking]

They make good fish food for many types of fish, they are garbage disposals and also eat many types of algae, I have them in my shrimp thank.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Just from my research, there are marine (saltwater) and freshwater Copepods. The marine Copepods can get quite big.

They are also classified as nano plankton.

 

[aqua.land]

Thank You!
Yes, probably you are right, although they do not have a visible tail, however they may be to small to see.

 

[aqua.land]

Yes, I bought them in a triop kit.
The booklet that came with it did say that I might have some 'unexpected extra pets'.
Thank you. I'll keep them for now but will try hatching some new triops in another tank.

 

[aqua.land]

They make good fish food for many types of fish, they are garbage disposals and also eat many types of algae, I have them in my shrimp thank.

Do shrimps eat them? For example cherry shrimps?

 

[dmpfishlover]

Do shrimps eat them? For example cherry shrimps?

Yes, shrimp will eat Copepods. Baby shrimp especially like to eat Copepods from what I hear.