Bill, here are a few pics of Gammarus Lacustris from my dugout and a small piece of the plant where I found them. They were clinging in fair numbers but I couldn't get much of the plants up through the hole I drilled. (34" of ice) I have found these plants in other lakes where the scuds were plentifull.

Wood -- Thanks a whole lot for providing these photos. They were informative and helpful.

From the photos the plants look like coontail (Ceratophyllum demersum). Your photos are good enough to see the teeth along the margins of the leaves. The leaves are obviously not whorled and not feather-like which are characteristics of the milfoils which superficially look similar to coontail.

Coontail is tolerant of cool water and low light conditions. It can overwinter as an evergreen plant which is evidenced by your pictures of green viable plants after extended ice cover in your region. Seeds rarely develop on Coontail and the plant reproduces mostly by fragmentation. The stiff whorls of leaves reportedly offer prime habitat for lots of critters especialy during winter when many other underwater plants are reduced to just roots. Your reports also verify this, since you find lots of scuds in the patches of coontail. Good work reporting this. I give you a great big "atta boy".

Believe it or not, lot's of people do read these posts that we never hear from.
I was waiting for Bill's response & almost sent him a pm alerting him to this post.
Thanks to the both of you!

Agreed! Milfoil would have alternating paired internodes on the stem, would be silghtly darker in color, and would have a reddish/purple tint on the stem. We have both in our pond. Definately looks like coontail to me.

It seems these scuds swam up the holes melted in the ice and were gathering in the flood water on top. I guess they are in a hurry for spring also.

Wow...I've never seen that before, the scuds coming out on the surface like that.


Were they all dead or alive?