# how do you get rid of scuds?



## oblongshrimp (Jul 26, 2006)

they are probably hiding in the gravel so i doubt you could remove them without destroying your biological filter. Why would you want to remove them? HC probably won't do well with bleach, moss is usually ok if its a quick dip.


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## cwilfinger (Jul 8, 2008)

I've read that they do attack baby shrimps. Besides, they are kinda creepy to me. 
I did take all the gravel and placed it into very hot water - trying to kill them. I think that I might have missed quite a few when I pulled the plants out. Either that, or hot water will not kill them (superbugs?). I was going to bleach dip the plants before doing this again. I guess that the moss and hc will have to be placed in a separate container until I can determine if they are infected or not. Do you think bleach dipping the other plants (crypts) will kill them? And should I boil the substrait this time around? or just get all new substrait?
My biological filter is already shot to heck. So I am basically starting from scratch again. Lucky for me, I have only 21 yellow shrimps, so having them in a breeder net should be ok for a few weeks (I hope), just until I can cycle the 2 gal tank.


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## OhNo123 (Jan 8, 2008)

or put the shrimp in the net for a few days and buy some fish. Fish will eat them .


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## Arakkis (Dec 7, 2007)

a gravel vac would get a lot of them. You could also take out the plants and freeze the rest of the tank w/o h2o or shrimp so you won't kill off the bacteria and kill the scuds. the vac the bodies out after thawing. You should also give the plants a 3% bleach solution dip to kill of any remaining scuds on those too.


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## ZooTycoonMaster (Jan 2, 2008)

cwilfinger said:


> I did take all the gravel and placed it into very hot water - trying to kill them. I think that I might have missed quite a few when I pulled the plants out


Doing so will kill all of the beneficial bacteria, which means you'll have to "mini-cycle" all over again (assuming you still have bacteria in the filter).

I'd try to siphon as much of the gravel as you can to try and get rid of them.


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## fishsandwitch (Apr 20, 2008)

wow, all this hassle to accomplish such an easy task! First get the tank recycled and then add half a dozen neon tetras for a week. Whala.


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## cwilfinger (Jul 8, 2008)

fishsandwitch said:


> wow, all this hassle to accomplish such an easy task! First get the tank recycled and then add half a dozen neon tetras for a week. Whala.


 
Great idea but then I'm stuck with the fish when they accomplished their task. I did have a betta in the tank before the shrimps and apparently the betta did not take care of the scuds. I had moved him to the bigger tank (55 gal planted) when the yellow shrimps came in. There were no scuds with the shrimps so it leaves me to believe that they came with one of the plants (crypts, HC, mosses). The betta should of taken care of the scud but apparently he did not.

I have taken the tank and drained it and stuck it outside. It is currently 6 degrees outside (wind chill -2). I think that it should freeze pretty good in this temp. The plants in the mean time have all been dipped in bleach solution and the moss and HC are in a jar for QT. 
I will have to take one of my mollies and stick it into this tank to cycle it all over again (he's not going to like the smaller tank). Hopefully this will all take care of my problem with scuds. I think that it came with some of my mosses because the crypts were dipped before going into the tank. The HC are so small, I don't think that I could miss a scud on those plants. The moss was the only thing that I threw in as a clump.


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## oblongshrimp (Jul 26, 2006)

so has anyone actually seen the scuds eat baby shrimp or is this another theory thats out there?


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## LS6 Tommy (May 13, 2006)

Patriot Missiles...

Tommy


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## Arakkis (Dec 7, 2007)

LS6 Tommy said:


> Patriot Missiles...
> 
> Tommy


I was waiting for someone to say that


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## oblongshrimp (Jul 26, 2006)

? I don't get it.


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## brohawk (May 19, 2008)

oblongshrimp said:


> ? I don't get it.


How old were you during the first Gulf War?


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## fishsandwitch (Apr 20, 2008)

any good LFS would take fish back...


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## oblongshrimp (Jul 26, 2006)

I was 7


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## brohawk (May 19, 2008)

oblongshrimp said:


> I was 7


Lol. That MIGHT be why.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scud_missile


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## brohawk (May 19, 2008)

Back on topic, I don't see how scuds would be an issue. They're not much bigger than baby shrimp anyway. Personally I think they're kinda cool and cute too.


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## cwilfinger (Jul 8, 2008)

this is why I wanted to get rid of the scuds...

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/shrimp/58723-gammarus-scuds-shrimp.html

dhavoc states
"you dont want to mess with them. yes they are easy to breed as feeders, but they are also IMPOSSIBLE to eliminate from any tank they are introduced to. and remember, they are plant eaters (especially mosses). and the big negative... if they cant get enough food, they WILL become carniverous, they have wiped out my opae ulae tank (yes they can adapt immediately from fresh to brackish water). they also will attack newly molted shrimp.

they are not worth messing with, go with daphnia if you need a live food source. *scuds* are just too hard to get rid of. "

I did not want them eating my plants or the shrimps. This is a small 2 gal tank and not much plants in the tank to begin with (2 baby crypts, 20 stems of hc, half of a golf ball size of moss)


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## dhavoc (May 4, 2006)

i wrote that a while back and i still agree with it. i just nuked another tank just to get rid of them, and coincidentally it was my yellow shrimp tank. i have been trapping the scuds from that tank to feed my dwarf puffers, chanoides bettas and chocolate gouramis for 6 months now. but even with removing 100+ a day, they still overan the tank (15g). there were only shrimps in there so no natural predators to keep them in check. last straw was when i caught them taking down another newly molted shrimp. breeding had gone down as the scud population went up, and i hadnt had any recent babies survive at all in a month. could be water conditions, but i dont think so. scuds only become an issue when there are no predators (fish) to keep them in check. i have them in all my planted tanks, and they are not a problem because of the fish. its only in my shrimp only tanks i need to make sure they dont get in.

with the plants you have, only the moss is really in danger, they will eat it to the stem in no time. i have found that they dont touch fissidens, so that may be another option instead of the moss if you cant erradicate them. 

they infest pretty much any tank you come across here in Hawaii and many freshwater streams and lakes as well. the way i keep them out of a new tank is to rinse plants well under a good current of water, then put in a clean container for a few hours, rinse again, and repeat for a couple of days. rinsing removes the adults, but its the babies (so small you would barely notice them) that are harder to remove, and thus require multiple washes. it only takes a few to start an infestation all over again. just be patient and rinse well or do a bleach dip. good luck.


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## cwilfinger (Jul 8, 2008)

I had noticed that they will survive in a tank that has not been cycled yet. They had survived in a tank that had ammonia was at 1.5, nitrite was at 2.0, and nitrate was at 20. So, they are tuff little buggers! But I think that I have finally got them (I hope). I did place the tank with substrait out into the cold single digit weather for several hours, and then let it thaw in the house. It has been a couple of days and I have left it sit empty of water for a few days. I will fill it up tomorrow and we will see how it goes. I know that I will have to start the cycle thing from scratch - but that isn't a problem.
A quick question, How long can you keep 21 shrimps in a breeder net (with a little bit of moss)? Should I feed them everyday?
Thanks dhavoc for your observations and posting them! The information saved me from having shrimp lost to them scuds!


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## dhavoc (May 4, 2006)

no problem. as for your yellows, if they are in a cycled tank, they can survive pretty much indefinitely in the breeder net. i use them myself and have kept shrimp in them for months on end.


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## southerndesert (Sep 9, 2007)

Interesting idea and hopefully it will work for you. I am pretty sure Scuds carry eggs like shrimp and don't "lay" them so as long as they are all dead now you should see no more.


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## marrow (Feb 4, 2007)

If you have co2 you can always crank the co2 way up at least that works for killing other shrimp.Yes, I learned the hard way. I do not know the effect it would have on the biological filter, it didnt seem to harm mine.


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## cwilfinger (Jul 8, 2008)

no, no co2 - this is just a small 2 gal tank. 
I'm adding water back into it today. I'm crossing my fingers and hopeing that everything turns out fine. If not then I'm ditching the gravel and scrubbing the hell out of the tank and adding all new gravel (starting from square one).


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## oblongshrimp (Jul 26, 2006)

Interesting dhavoc. Come to think of it I do have a tank of tiger shrimp with scuds and I haven't seen any baby shrimp in there....I was wondering why and that could be the reason. Guess I will have to remove them and get some hungry fish in there to eat them, or just gas them with CO2.


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## cwilfinger (Jul 8, 2008)

UPDATE. tank is up and running... no signs of scuds. Looks like freezing them did the trick!
Thanks for your help everyone!


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## beedee (Jul 1, 2010)

oblongshrimp said:


> so has anyone actually seen the scuds eat baby shrimp or is this another theory thats out there?


I hope that is just a myth because I have a plethora of baby crs in my tank which also has unfortunately acquired scuds. :0/


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## aluka (Feb 2, 2013)

i totally just found one in my pfr/crs tank... i don't see anymore tho.. anychance that i only have one?


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## CookieM (Feb 7, 2012)

I dealt with scuds before. The only best way to get rid of them is temporary move your shrimps into another tank with water from the old tank, at least half and bring old filter or sponge over. Then add a bunch of aggressive fish, use a rod/stick to stir up the gravel and keep doing it over 2 days. 

I try other methods and no success, scuds are extremely fast and able to burrow in the soils. So there are no other way of removing them than by the method above.


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## randyl (Feb 1, 2012)

If I'm going through the trouble of netting all the shrimps out, I'd do it with fish for way more than 2 days. It doesn't take many of them to reproduce back in full force in a few weeks.

I personally witness they attack a juvi size fire red about 1.5 - 2 month old. About 4 or 5 clinched on the shrimp and won't let go. The fire red was losing the battle after only a minute or two, I netted it out, left it in a feeding dish (with no scud), two days later when I finally remembered, I checked and the shrimp was still alive and kicking. Put it back in the tank and it swam away.... I still don't have a good way to control these things, reduce feeding worked to certain degree but there are still a lot of them in the tank.


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## dhavoc (May 4, 2006)

put a slice of zucchini in the tank overnight, scuds love the stuff and will be covering it in no time. before the light comes on, slowly net it out (I use a tweezer to slowly lift slice into a fine mesh net and remove). they cling to the slice and most will remain. rinse in a tank of fish as food or simply rinse under a faucet to get rid of them. put the slice back in the tank and repeat until you find only a few attached after a night. by that point you will have knocked back the population quite a bit but you will never get rid of them unless you nuke the tank. I like dwarf gourami's and loaches so I use them as a ready live food source. but I have lost entire tanks of shrimp to them when I ignored them too long. I really hate the little bastards.....


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## CookieM (Feb 7, 2012)

dhavoc said:


> put a slice of zucchini in the tank overnight, scuds love the stuff and will be covering it in no time. before the light comes on, slowly net it out (I use a tweezer to slowly lift slice into a fine mesh net and remove). they cling to the slice and most will remain. rinse in a tank of fish as food or simply rinse under a faucet to get rid of them. put the slice back in the tank and repeat until you find only a few attached after a night. by that point you will have knocked back the population quite a bit but you will never get rid of them unless you nuke the tank. I like dwarf gourami's and loaches so I use them as a ready live food source. but I have lost entire tanks of shrimp to them when I ignored them too long. I really hate the little bastards.....


Scuds are easily spooked and extremely fast. No way on earth will netting them with a bait will ever worked. 

On other note: Betta is a weak slow swimmer. If you want to add fish add tetras.


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## MABJ (Mar 30, 2012)

CookieM said:


> Scuds are easily spooked and extremely fast. No way on earth will netting them with a bait will ever worked.
> 
> On other note: Betta is a weak slow swimmer. If you want to add fish add tetras.


The above method works with a jar as a trap.


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## dhavoc (May 4, 2006)

CookieM said:


> Scuds are easily spooked and extremely fast. No way on earth will netting them with a bait will ever worked.
> 
> On other note: Betta is a weak slow swimmer. If you want to add fish add tetras.


not when they are feeding, kinda like crays, they cling to the food until you raise it out of the water, trick is to lift slowly into the net or jar while in the tank then lift out. a few will escape, but IME, you will get almost all that were attached to the zuch.


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## auban (Jun 23, 2012)

remove shrimp, add sparkling soda.

the CO2 levels skyrocket to insanely high levels instantly. ph instantly drops to incredibly low levels. plants sometimes suffer, but are usually ok if you leave the lights on. best part is, no chemicals left over.

its like cranking the CO2 up, only much faster and more dramatically. you have to remove the shrimp though...


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## trueblu8 (Mar 3, 2012)

auban said:


> remove shrimp, add sparkling soda.
> 
> the CO2 levels skyrocket to insanely high levels instantly. ph instantly drops to incredibly low levels. plants sometimes suffer, but are usually ok if you leave the lights on. best part is, no chemicals left over.
> 
> its like cranking the CO2 up, only much faster and more dramatically. you have to remove the shrimp though...


 Wow. This sounds like an awesome method. Anybody tried it yet?

I'm new to scuds and I'm desperate. I think they're eating my mini pellia, and my oebt's. Their population has gotten out of control. I was thinking about adding some guppies. But auban's method above seems like a much better option. I've got seltzer water and tonic water. How much should I use 1 liter or 2 liters? Tank is a 10 gallon.


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## Puddles (Jan 5, 2013)

Use carbonated water if you're going to try it, not tonic or anything else that has sugar and stuff in it.


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## trueblu8 (Mar 3, 2012)

So basically seltzer water right, without the twist of lemon or lime?


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## Soothing Shrimp (Nov 9, 2011)

" How much should I use 1 liter or 2 liters? Tank is a 10 gallon. "

Good question!


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## CookieM (Feb 7, 2012)

Seriously just add fish to get rid of scuds. Remove shrimp prior to adding fish. Using all these chemical method and you'll regret it later on.


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## mr.bigglesworth (Jul 6, 2012)

CookieM said:


> Seriously just add fish to get rid of scuds. Remove shrimp prior to adding fish. Using all these chemical method and you'll regret it later on.


What chemicals? All this is is co2 water. As long as you get all the shrimp out and any super sensitive plants maybe they will be fine. It'll be over in an evening, tank only needs 45 mins maybe for the scuds to suffocate. Then swirl the water with your hand and dump the animals back in.


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## auban (Jun 23, 2012)

when i did it, i added the carbonated water (sparkling soda) in 4 oz increments. i cant remember how much i used, i think it was less than a liter though. 

i imagine the exact dose would vary. either way, the scuds first darted for cover, then started looking like they were trying to crawl out of the tank, and then started dying. it didnt take very long. just be sure to bubble the water and check the ph to make sure its back to normal before you add your shrimp back in.


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## trueblu8 (Mar 3, 2012)

An evening of just adding co2 sounds good to me. Although adding fish and watching them hunt down and munch on those scuds sounds fun who knows if they would ever get them all, especially if you have lots of thick mosses and hiding places like I do. You could be waiting forever. And they may never get them all. And then what would you do with your shrimp for all that time? I'm going to try this method. But I'm going to wait an extra day or two for the tank to rebalance itself before reintroducing shrimp. That way I could give the pH and oxygen levels a little more time to return to normal.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

trueblu8 said:


> An evening of just adding co2 sounds good to me. Although adding fish and watching them hunt down and munch on those scuds sounds fun who knows if they would ever get them all, especially if you have lots of thick mosses and hiding places like I do. You could be waiting forever. And they may never get them all. And then what would you do with your shrimp for all that time? I'm going to try this method. But I'm going to wait an extra day or two for the tank to rebalance itself before reintroducing shrimp. That way I could give the pH and oxygen levels a little more time to return to normal.


Sounds like an excellent method. Great idea.


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## LINDA R (Dec 12, 2018)

I am wondering why everyone is so eager to get rid of the scuds :/ I have tank with cherry and ghost shrimps. The scuds get along just fine with them. There are pond and ram horn snails in the tank too. They are also in my guppy tank and my mosquito fish tank. They are in the substrate, but I mostly find them in the filters when I clean them...which is not too often because the scuds are filter feeders...so they are constantly working on the filters and I do not have to clean them as often. I was concerned about them being in with the guppies...but I do keep my fish well fed and if the guppies are eating them...I do not see it. The scuds eat the same algae food I feed the shrimp and I have NEVER seen them attacking anything. I get a kick out of seeing them hitching rides on the snails. I love the little guys. I have a 2 gallon tank for them and use a sponge filter (the small one) that is the best for them so they do not get sucked into a driven filter with an impeller. When I do an exchange on the tanks they live in, I am careful to use a net to catch them so they do not go down the drain. These are shrimps! I hate the name "scuds" for them...makes them sound like something bad. I do not keep them in with the goldfish in my 20 gallon because I do not think they would survive. I stumbled on these posts because I was thinking of adding neons to my tank with the ghost/cherry shrimp. I found that the neons are too small themselves to to eat the shrimp...but I was concerned for my scuds too. If they do eat the scuds...no neons in my tank!


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## dzega (Apr 22, 2013)

trueblu8 said:


> Wow. This sounds like an awesome method. Anybody tried it yet?
> 
> I'm new to scuds and I'm desperate. I think they're eating my mini pellia, and my oebt's. Their population has gotten out of control. I was thinking about adding some guppies. But auban's method above seems like a much better option. I've got seltzer water and tonic water. How much should I use 1 liter or 2 liters? Tank is a 10 gallon.


ive done it to knock out snails. i added pure sparkling water. the show in tank was spectacular but sadly few suckers did make it most probably hiding deep in substrate. 
if you want to really get rid of them, boil(or heat in oven) everything you have in tank, toss the plants, filter etc. 
but do the sparkling water thing first for fun


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## nbr1rodeoclown (Feb 6, 2015)

LINDA R said:


> I hate the name "scuds" for them...makes them sound like something bad.


-call them Gammarids!

I agree these are not a problem, they eat detritus.
But yeah i'd maybe go with a a hungry fish solution before a chemical one.


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