# Scuds...



## 10gallonplanted (Oct 31, 2010)

Does anyone know how to get rid of these in my cherry tank? I am so tired of them eating my mosses. Does anyone know an affecting way to kill or catch them without harming my shrimp?


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## mordalphus (Jun 23, 2010)

make a bottle trap, dump the trap into a dip n pour or tupperware, and separate the cherries out, put the scuds in a breather bag, and mail the scuds to me. Then put the cherries back in your tank, rebait/reset the trap and repeat!


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## flowmsp (Feb 6, 2010)

mordalphus said:


> make a bottle trap, dump the trap into a dip n pour or tupperware, and separate the cherries out, *put the scuds in a breather bag, and mail the scuds to me.* Then put the cherries back in your tank, rebait/reset the trap and repeat!


Lol loving this reply. I have them in my rcs tank also. I just ignore them mostly.


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## psalm18.2 (Oct 16, 2010)

What is a scud?


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## Cardinal Tetra (Feb 26, 2006)

psalm18.2 said:


> What is a scud?


A type of missile as wikipedia says :hihi:

They're talking about amphipods. They're annoying little beasties.


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## Chucker (Apr 9, 2011)

Looks sorta like this - 










OK, i kid, I kid :hihi:



"Scud" is a common term for an amphipod -


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## asukawashere (Mar 19, 2010)

mordalphus said:


> make a bottle trap, dump the trap into a dip n pour or tupperware, and separate the cherries out, put the scuds in a breather bag, and mail the scuds to me. Then put the cherries back in your tank, rebait/reset the trap and repeat!


Other than the obvious use as fish food (angelfish love scuds! unfortunately they also love cherry shrimp LOL), what on earth would you need a gazillion scuds mailed to you on a regular basis for?


Anyway, I seem to have an army of them living in my cherry shrimp/endler tank. They're a bit like an invertebrate duckweed, IMO - constantly multiplying, impossible to remove, and annoying to look at.

Like duckweed, I have more or less given up on controlling the proliferation of them and have instead resigned myself to their existence. Mine, however, don't eat my moss, so it's not like them being there is hurting anything.


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## mordalphus (Jun 23, 2010)

because my fish love to eat them, and it's very awesome to watch them hunt these uber fast amphipods.


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## 10gallonplanted (Oct 31, 2010)

Well what would be the best bait for them? They dont seem to swarm over regular shrimp food.


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## mordalphus (Jun 23, 2010)

are you sure they're scuds and not copepods? my scuds flip out over shrimp food


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## 10gallonplanted (Oct 31, 2010)

Haha yes im absolutely sure. I've tried using a trap with them before with a mix of aglae wafers and crab and lobster bites as bait and all i caught was a ton of cherries lol.


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## mordalphus (Jun 23, 2010)

lol, put all ur moss in the trap


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## 10gallonplanted (Oct 31, 2010)

That might just work! Hahaha, i swear i cant get them out of my moss. I have my moss in a seperate tank now and about an hour ago i saw a little stupid scud swimming around in there. And about shipping them to you, if i had breather bags i would totally send them to you.


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## dhavoc (May 4, 2006)

forget about eliminating them, you can only reduce their population once they establish themselves in a tank. mosses are the best bait. just put a small ball of moss in a net and every few hours lift it out, rinse in a bucket or a tank of fish and tons should swarm out. repeat.... forever. you will reduce their population in a week or two, but if you stop trapping them, the population will rebound very quickly. they hide in the substrate and in your filters as well. i basically remove my shrimp/crays and nuke the tank if they get to be a problem.


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## 10gallonplanted (Oct 31, 2010)

I tried your method, and so far i have caught shrimp.. again lol!
I took it out about 2 hours after this and i end up catching around 100 shrimp and about 40 scuds. Good catch.


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## mordalphus (Jun 23, 2010)

lol, they're taunting you


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## dhavoc (May 4, 2006)

That's exactly how I do it. When you raise the net up, chase the shrimps out with a chopstick or similar. Scuds should stay in the moss as long as it remains under water. It's never ending, but just swish the moss ball in a tank of hungry fish and they will love you for it. And yes they are taunting you because they are as resilient if not more so than roaches...


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## Kitty_Kitsch (Apr 27, 2011)

Where do you guys get them? I have never had any little unknown critters in my tanks...


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## Cardinal Tetra (Feb 26, 2006)

Kitty_Kitsch said:


> I have never had any little unknown critters in my tanks...


Call yourself lucky... the only thing that I found that got rid of snails, worms, and other nasty little beasties without eating my shrimp were red claw shrimp and I still sometimes find something disagreeable crawling around that the red claws missed. The little beasties come on plants and such as hitchhikers.


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## Kitty_Kitsch (Apr 27, 2011)

I have pond snails o plenty! Those I know well lol I wasn't counting snails...
Angels like scuds huh? When mine grow up maybe I'll be like mordalphus grabbin' em up!


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## dhavoc (May 4, 2006)

they dont tollerate freezing temps, that why they are not really pests in most of the cont USA. in Hawaii though, our year round temperate climate is perfect for invaders be it plant or animal. scuds for the most part are like neocaridina (wild form) and are invasive pests. they threaten the native shrimps because they breed much faster (our natives have a salt water larval stage), and also by out competing them for food and living space. its the same story with most other imported plants or animals, they dont call us the endangered species capital for nothing sadly...

back on subject, if you want them for food, go on aquabid or the swap and sale, all you need is a 5gal tank with a sponge filter and moss or feed the spirulina flakes. they can tollerate any water type though they slow down breeding when the ph drops below 6.3 or so. i even had them breeding in my opae ula brackish tank, where they wiped the shrimp out. i personally rank them as worse than hydra and planaria, at least with those you can kill them with panacur. with scuds, anything that affects them will definately kill your shrimp and snails (copper).


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## Chucker (Apr 9, 2011)

dhavoc said:


> they dont tollerate freezing temps, that why they are not really pests in most of the cont USA. in Hawaii though, our year round temperate climate is perfect for invaders be it plant or animal. scuds for the most part are like neocaridina (wild form) and are invasive pests. <snippage>


Depends on what species you are talking about. I live in upstate NY, and have a creek behind the house that freezes every winter. It has scuds. There is also a world class spring-fed trout stream less than 15 miles from here that is chock full of scuds. They are one of the major patterns for those who fly fish there.


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## mordalphus (Jun 23, 2010)

Yah, there's scuds here in washington too. I think they just exist everywhere like cockroaches and rats. But here you wont see a huge swarm of them because pretty much every waterway in washington is chock full of trout or salmon


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## dhavoc (May 4, 2006)

must be different species, i actually freeze the filters and hardscape of tanks i want them erradicated from. especially the gravel that would take too long to completely dry out (my other killing method).


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## FDNY911 (Dec 6, 2009)

I just found a ton of these scuds in my tank ... I never had them before ... I just dumped to moist bags of the New Aqua soil and now theres about a dozen or so ... and one long red flat worm. Do these little critters reproduce rapidly?


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## GDP (Mar 12, 2011)

10gallonplanted said:


> I tried your method, and so far i have caught shrimp.. again lol!
> I took it out about 2 hours after this and i end up catching around 100 shrimp and about 40 scuds. Good catch.


I had to laugh. Just too funny the shrimp were like ....... hmmm whats going on in here?


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## 10gallonplanted (Oct 31, 2010)

*Update*

Almost all scuds are gone after turkey bastering them every morning for 2 weeks. I haven't seen a scud in weeks, but I know they're still in there. I just have to get rid of they're new generation before they get to breeding size... And repeat.

And yes the reproduce probably about the same rate as Red Cherries.


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## Fish4Fun (Jan 4, 2010)

I love scuds! send some my way if you do ship them out haha


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## 10gallonplanted (Oct 31, 2010)

Haha If you would've told me, would've saved them. I could of sent you around 150.


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