Not only are they out of a home, but something is trying So thought I would set up a mini indoor aquarium just for them about 30 scud in a 25 litre aquarium. Harvest by netting them with a fish net or by picking up the plastic screening and shaking over a bucket. Thanks for wonderfull blog on gammares. I've had success controlling staghorn algae with Seachem's Excel, but I'd rather not have to use such chemicals all of the time. Aquarium fish will also appreciate the scuds as food. Some duckweed too...not a lot. I was mad but, well live and learn. Replies to my comments The hobbyist could take a clean plastic trash can (rinsed a few times to remove manufacturing chemicals such as formaldehyde) and then follow these simple instructions: Raising scuds is an easy, almost labor free way to get your fish to reward you with more vibrant colors, longer lives, and more and healthier fry. The scuds had no problem eating the algae off of wood. I have a scud and snail tank for growing food for my various fish. Yes I would love to see those blue scuds too! Scuds are in the class crustacea, order amphipoda, family gammaridae. Do scuds attack young, adult, or moulting shrimp? I have scuds in three tanks, a 20 community tank, where they buried themselves in the gravel, a three with Cherry shrimp, and a three with dwarf Cajun crawfish. So thought I would set up a mini indoor aquarium just for them about 30 scud in a 25 litre aquarium. These are things I've read about scuds that I haven't yet verified for myself. Scuds are not harmful to freshwater aquariums. will they eat algae and decaying plant matter first? A scud is a herbivore because it only eats plants. In addition, their hunger has no limits that might cause some problems for shrimp, fish, and planted tanks as well. Nevertheless, it is wise to maintain a replicate culture in case of a disaster. At the time, our hatchery was in Santa Fe, NM. Scuds are omnivores that most commonly eat detritus, although they may also graze on live algae, fungi, and bacteria. Photo by Matt Hill of EcoAnalysts, Inc., our go-to expert on invertebrate identification, of one of our male scuds. I found this thread while looking for a good way to separate scuds from duckweed. And I so appreciate the photos and details. Dr. Gabor studies Poecilia formosa, an all-female livebearing fish species commonly known as the Amazon molly. Scuds eat most anything, but we have an abundance of hornwort which they seem to relish. Hi, from Geneva, Switzerland. This sounds promising since it'd be safer than using chemicals that might remain in the tank. If you have plants, but no algae, feed the scuds something algae-based and they’ll not destroy the plants. and stems, or rocks, sticks, etc. Your email address will not be published. Marios - what a great study of scuds. Thinking the warmer Texas climate would be conducive to outdoor rearing, we put the scuds into 300-gallon vats outside the greenhouses. I don't recommend scuds in any tanks with plnts… they have decimated several types of plants in my planted tank (they were accidentally introduced with some new java moss) and have destroyed my large amazon swords and reduced my large amount of java moss to a tiny clump.. The scuds weren't attacking the moss but waited for carrots and cucumbers and peas, then took the spoil in their hiding place. There is little they don’t eat. Scud culture by hobbyists can be almost as easy as what we do. They seem to do best with sand substrate to borough with some coarse gravel to provide hiding places not completely covering the sand, floating plants such as duckweed and salvinia and Naja grass throughout the tank. Scuds eat decaying plants, excess fish food, dead fish, fish poop and anything else organic and decaying. Jury is out on baby shrimp, which I don't see, but had problems breeding before I added scuds. Collecting scuds to feed to our fish is simple; we sweep through the hornwort with a 10-inch aquarium net to yield hundreds of them. They will even eat paper towels. However, I'm trying to find answers to the following first: Scuds are the cockroach of the aquarium world they will infest and eat your plants roots. We reared those original scuds in 55-gallon vats inside our greenhouse. I was not aware of the scuds until the population got quite large (I was scratching my head about what was going on with the plants)..I finally figured out what was going on after going in at night with the lights off and a flashlight and looking in the tank...Oh and they also eat the roots of floating plants...I can't treat with anything because of the shrimp... what I have done to get them under control (finally) is put a fairly coarse filter (big enough for the scuds to get through but not the shrimp) on the intake of my external canister filter and then putting a large amount of poly-fill in the canister to catch them, at this point in time I have them pretty well knocked back but still get a few hundred out of the power filter every week...Oh and they also kill snails, my Malaysian trumpet snail population has plummeted as the scuds population has gone up (another head scratcher until I found the scuds).. https://itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=93295#null. Using these scuds as part of your aquariums biotope is extremely beneficial, and will help aid and maintain a perfect balance. (meaning unknown species in the genus Hyalella). I have some Java Moss and other plants to experiment with and elsewhere I have read they will eat Duckweed but that plant can most certainly take over if given a chance and if they control it and Algae and leave other plants alone, sounds like a win win situation. I was curious about this because these leaves are sofware than those of the Anubias in the above photos. Any container that can hold water can be used. Hmmm. PS : Freshwater, obviously. Also, I've exposed 20+ plants to scuds along with 4 or so mosses. Scuds have a cephalothorax (head/thorax), seven thoracic segments (each with a pair of legs), a six-segmented abdomen, and a tail. Fair warning. Do not release into the wild unless they were collected from a local pond. I've been able to knock out hair algae using API's Algaefix, which is harmful to shrimp so not a perfect solution. Scuds live in many habitats of all different sizes, but are most common in the shallows of cool streams, springs, seeps, lakes, and ponds, as well as the backwaters of large rivers. They both disappeared never saw them in the aquarium again. My first bit of news is that while scuds will eat BBA, they don't seem to be good at seeking it out. By Marios Alexandrou on December 22, 2019. From my perspective this wasn’t a problem. Filed Under: Invertebrates, Live Foods Tagged With: gammarus, hatchery operations, Hyalella, live fish food, plant filtration, scuds, Your email address will not be published. Some people seem to have better luck with them i.e. Algae is the bane of most freshwater aquarium keepers. We don’t aerate the scud vats, instead we allow a steady drip of water to provide oxygenation. Thought about collecting some while the water was cold Do scuds “prefer” certain foods over others i.e. African Cichlids – Peacock Aquarium Strains. Small numbers of scuds might find food more readily without having to eat plants. I tossed in any plants that were growing algae, so the scuds would clean the algae off, and I still do that with the gallon jar, along with some floaters, which they appear to like a lot, and fed them as above, when algae was scarce. Home (All Topics) → Pets & Animals → Freshwater Aquariums ↓. They have two eyes and two pairs of antennae. It is difficult to keep tiger barbs recently. They will occasionally attack small living animals, and will eat any recently dead plants and animals they come upon. Periodic, partial water changes are necessary. Gammarus will also survive in an aquarium with plants and snails. If feeding to fish in a well planted tank, some scuds may survive and establish a secondary colony which will provide snacks for your fish. You can throw extra aquarium plant clippings into your amphipod culture as snacks if you like. Scuds will eat the “leaves” of java moss leaving the stems behind. Our scuds will feed directly on both plant and animal materials. I know they'll eat java moss, but are there any other plants that they will decimate? As for black beard algae, I've found nothing more effective than hydrogen peroxide, but I've never been able to eliminate it entirely and who wants to do treatments every day? Large bubbles are better than very fine bubbles, which can get under their carapaces and make them float and eventually die. As long as you keep your scud culture indoors, you will not need a heater. They came out only when the food was finished. The project will conclude when I can not find any scuds in the tank for 2 months or by 12/31/19 whichever comes first! Different species of scuds occur in different aquatic habitats, even deep water, but they are most often found near the bottom substrate, foraging among decaying plants and algae. Then the tank got overrun with dugesia tigrina (water flatworm) and I believe they ate all of the scuds. Take a look at this before and after shot of an anubias leaf I left in a container of 50 or so scuds for 24+ hours. Unfortunately, no scuds survived the dragonfly onslaught. Scuds have 2 pairs of antennae and 7 pairs of legs. When we went to harvest scuds, we got a bumper crop of dragonfly nymphs, a great food for large cichlids, but deadly to small fish and, apparently to scuds. Scuds are an entirely aquatic species, so they never venture on land. Scuds can be kept in an aquarium of pond water with plants, or maintained as described above. Cichlids and many killifish love them. BTW..I don't buy algae wafers in assorted sizes. One of the livefoods for fish we raise in our hatchery is scuds, also known as Gammarus. Rtessy. The hobbyist could feed the scuds hornwort like we do. This crustacean reaches about 1cm (0.4 in.). This is an ideal clean-up crew / Live Food for those needing substrates plants that need attention to get cleaned. This tank has only one large ramshorn snail. ... Scud is a herbivore because it eats only plants. Any scuds not immediately consumed survive our systems’ conditions indefinitely so they can be fed in abundance without fear of water fouling. Is it ok to put these into my tank? There is little they don’t eat. I just put Java fern in my freshwater tank this morning and this evening I find a few scuds on the plants. Using these scuds as part of your aquariums biotope is extremely beneficial, and will help aid and maintain a perfect balance. “According to ITIS, there are six species in the genus Hyalella, although if you read the blog above, you know that one of those six species, Hyalella Azteca, actually consists of dozens of undescribed species of scuds. In another week or two I will get my culture going for a test run. Is it ok to put these into my tank? I also wonder if it's a number of scuds vs. available food thing. Do you sometimes go out in the morning to find pieces of your plants have disappeared overnight?