# gammarus scuds/shrimp



## SearunSimpson (Jun 5, 2007)

Has anyone successfully kept and raised a culture of these things? I have no problem with daphnia, but I know a guy that has a big culture and I'm thinking of getting some to start my own. Anyone with info? I googled them and really didnt come up with anything.


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## LS6 Tommy (May 13, 2006)

Why? For feeders? They're REALLY invasive. I got a few with some shrimp once. If it wasn't for my Discus, Yo-Yos & the bigger Tetras they would have overrun the entire tank.

Tommy


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## crazie.eddie (May 31, 2004)

Wow, at a quick glance on the subject, I thought you were talking about this...










But then realized, you were talking about these...









I'm thinking you probably want to use them for feeders, since you culture daphnia as well. Looks interesting. I've often wondered looking for nice, easy feeders for my angels and discus.


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## NeonShrimp (Mar 9, 2006)

The two almost look alike if you look at them long enough.


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## dhavoc (May 4, 2006)

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.


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## SearunSimpson (Jun 5, 2007)

I was going to keep them in their own 5.5gl tank and feed them my plant clippings. From what I've been able to read and research, they are pretty invasive and hard to get rid of once established in a tank and have also heard they are carnivorous. The guy that has them feeds them lettuce leaves and pieces of apple. I am just wanting another source of live foods really that are self sustaining and easy to keep.


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## LS6 Tommy (May 13, 2006)

crazie.eddie said:


> Wow, at a quick glance on the subject, I thought you were talking about this...


That's _Gammera,_ not Gammarus... 

Tommy


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## JenThePlantGeek (Mar 27, 2006)

I used to have a container garden outside, just a little tub with some potted plants and floaters, maybe a foot deep or so with water. I got a great population of scuds going. I'd go out and sweep my net through the floaters and just toss them in for my natives tank. Never had a problem with them being invasive with those fish


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## dhavoc (May 4, 2006)

they arent a problem when theres predators around (fish etc), they stay in hiding and you dont even know their there unless you pull up some plants or actively look for them. its when there are no predators (shrimp tanks for example) where they get out of control and exibit their nasty bad traits..... going to actually do bleach or vinegar dips on the plants for my sulawesi shrimp tanks i am setting up now just to make sure they dont get in. though they will eventually, all it takes is one berried female. for my already infected invert tanks, i take great joy in sucking them out with a turkey baster and giving them to my dwarf puffers.


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## sandiegoryu (Feb 15, 2006)

So just don't introduce them to your non-fish tanks... right? How big are they? Size of adult daphnia? Are they equivalent to marine amphipods? Just wondering to what I could feed them to.


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## LS6 Tommy (May 13, 2006)

sandiegoryu said:


> So just don't introduce them to your non-fish tanks... right? How big are they? Size of adult daphnia? Are they equivalent to marine amphipods? Just wondering to what I could feed them to.


A full grown Scud is about 1/4".

Tommy


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## crazy loaches (Sep 29, 2006)

I just recently asked about something I spotted in my 240g on another forum and was told it was some sort of scud. I'd never heard the term before personally. I asked a few times if they were bad or anything to worry and no one mentioned if they were.

Is this a scud? And is it anything to worry about? (found in my 240g tank that is to be heavily planted & stocked with fish - mainly loaches):


Click for larger pic.

Actually thats the first shot I've ever taken with a macro lens (not DSLR, just a p&s) and I found it extremely difficult to use properly without knowing what I was doing, as you can tell with the focus. The thing has a super duper tight focus, that guy is actually slightly smaller than 1/4" and I couldnt get it all in focus.

I found these while cleaning out my filter socks in the sump. The first time I did it I might have found 3-4 of them but wasnt really trying... I put them back in the tank. If I see them in the future should I not put them back in? Or will they just be loach food?


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## JenThePlantGeek (Mar 27, 2006)

Looks like a scud to me. I wouldn't worry about it - I kinda like the little guys, and you won't have to worry about the population exploding if you have loaches in there.


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## dhavoc (May 4, 2006)

yeah, with loaches around, they are no issue, and even a bonus treat for them. my 120g has them, and my botia sidim. and darter tetras spend the day hunting them down. they only become a problem if there isnt somthing to keep the population in check.


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## crazy loaches (Sep 29, 2006)

Sounds good then, thanks!


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## HOLLYWOOD (May 12, 2007)

Is there a loach that will survive in 72-76 deg tank yet consume these scuds? Will loaches eat baby inverts (shrimplets)


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## crazy loaches (Sep 29, 2006)

Well without going into detail and all the other issues, yes they will most definitely eat shrimp so no sense debating the rest.


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## afonseca827 (Mar 24, 2016)

I know this is a very old thread but just this morning I found one of these guys in my 1.5 gal I have at work. It has one single java fern in there, no fish. Where did this thing come from?

My tank has been set up for about 2 months.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk


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## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

afonseca827 said:


> I know this is a very old thread but just this morning I found one of these guys in my 1.5 gal I have at work. It has one single java fern in there, no fish. Where did this thing come from?
> 
> My tank has been set up for about 2 months.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk


Hitched a ride with something you introduced.


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## afonseca827 (Mar 24, 2016)

It must have been in the plant. That's the only live thing that has been in there since set up.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk


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## Axelrodi202 (Jul 29, 2008)

Once these are in a tank they're almost impossible to remove, even with predators. Their eggs can remain the substrate for quite some time

However I did discover one method inadvertently. I had a 15 gallon tank with only a few plants that had some scuds present. I wanted to have shrimp in the tank but chalked it up as lost cause (the scuds will out-compete the shrimplets and the colony will die off). I dosed repeated doses of Algaefix to completely eliminate the green hair algae present (I wanted to plant mosses in the tank). I probably dosed over a two week period (though not every three days as instructed). I also didn't do a water change after each dose - perhaps only one during two weeks. Well after there was no algae left, I noticed that the scuds seemed to be extinct. I waited for a few weeks to confirm, and still nothing. My guess is that the AlgaeFix (toxic to crustaceans) killed off the adults, and either killed the eggs too or was present for long enough for the whole life cycle to play out, killing any juveniles that hatched. The tank is now home to 50+ malawa shrimp.


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