Are These Copepods?

Staring into my shrimp tank tonight, as I do every evening- how sad is that - and I noticed that the moss ball at the back had little "things" on it.  I thought at first it was the filter throwing bits of sand in the water, that's how small these things are.

I kept a close eye and in fact watched a couple to see one  make a determined effort to move, flowing through the water then landing back on the moss.  There are also others on the back wall of the tank, some are more elongated and others are more "dot" like.

They are so so tiny, I cannot photograph them.  They don't look like baby shrimp since I understand they look like mini versions of mum. Do they start off like that or do they start of dotlike?

The only new thing gone in recently are two Alder cones but these had boiling water poured on them twice and were steeped in the last lot for 10 minutes.

I don't feed the shrimp very often, maybe every 2nd, third day and even then food only stays in for around 1/2 hour before being removed so I don't think I'm overfeeding as I know that's a contributing factor to copepods
If these are copepods should I just ignore them.  I don't have fish in the tank at the moment although I am tempted to get a few

Hi Sanjo,
I've had the same problem (see my thread about cyclops invasion). The guy I buy all my shrimp supplies from reckons that these beasties are very difficult to get rid of, but don't cause harm, except in huge numbers, where they'll outcompete the shrimplets for food (see his advice in my thread).
I looked at getting some fish to control the problem and decided on Mosquito Rasbora  (Briigitte something or other – Sue knows the correct name). Unfortunately, the ones I was going to buy all died when the seller's bag burst en route to meeting me.
I decided on these fish, after being advised by Sue, because they are so tiny that they pose the least threat to shrimp, but I do believe there are other species that will also do the trick.
As for my shrimp tank? Well, I'm feeding a little less and I'm due to get some Mosquito Rasbora from the same seller when she gets back from holiday in a few weeks time. Hopefully these ones will survive!

I knew Brigitte was in the name somewhere!