Waterflea or Daphina or Cyclops

[Yongliang]

All experts,
I just saw lots of really small white dots moving and crawling on the glass of my shrimp tank!
Not sure how they came and what they! Waterflea, daphnia or cyclops...
1) Are they harmful? I am worried they may reproduce more and more
2) How best to get rid of them without harming my shrimps and newborn shrimplets?

Thanks a lot!

[Griffith DreamWalker]

Do you have any pictures? It may be more easier to identify them if so. However, I suspect your 'white dots' may be seed shrimps, harmless little critters that are often fish food for fry in the wild. They are also known as Ostracods and whenever you see a large population of them, ot means that your water is stable, there are no predeators, excess food(like algae, food stuff that your shrimp missed etc.) and a good sign for some. Getting rid of them by hand ir chemical is nearly impossible, seeing as they are so tiny and FO NOT, in any shape or form, harm your tank inhabitants. That being said, introducing fishes/fry will always decimate the population but brings risk of unwanted deaths or pests.

PS: I used to have a large batch of these things running around my shrimp tank, but ever since I introduced some fishes, the population will go on a low till the predeators are gone.