Does anyone have pictures of pk shrimp larva? I released a bunch of PK shrimp in my forage pond last year and none in my main pond. I went looking for them and found a ton of little crustacean creatures that are quite small (1/4"). I don't know if they are young shrimp or scuds, but I only found them in the forage pond.
I spent a ton of time on the big pond trying to find them and couldn't find even one, but they are everywhere in the forage pond. I forgot to take my phone so I don't have any pictures just yet.
The adult shrimp were purchased off an eBay seller discussed here. I did place some in the fridge overnight to test cold hardiness and all survived.
Unfortunately, due to their color, 2 minutes after releasing them they were never seen again. I guess I need to take like a pool skimmer with me next time to try and catch some. I hope they survived as there is minimal predation and decent cover. Ideally I would get them breeding so I can establish them into the big pond.
I will also transplant some of the scuds to the big pond in a secluded area.
Twar, It appears the same ebay seller is still selling them and he certainly sold you PK shrimp. So that means they are hiding in the vegetation and you need to net in the grass in the shallows when the water warms up, or they were eaten or displaced or something.
I have seen the PK shrimp with a strong light in the shallows at night. Their eyes glow a bit under a strong light.
But on the other hand most of us would love to have the Gammarus sp. too. if your pond keeps a thriving population of the scuds that isn't too bad for a trade off or is it?
IF you put them in last July they really haven't had a "full" breeding season and the numbers could still be low. Given another full summer breeding season you should see many more I would suspect.
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Twar, of those last few pictures the first and second one are a type of a fly that love to eat shrimp. I some how got one into my planted aquarium tank with my red cherry shrimp and it keeps making snacks of our shrimp.
I know it is in my tank still because I have a new shed from it in there this week. I do not know how long it takes to turn into the fly but it is making short work of my shrimp.
The first few pictures are of scuds for sure. We have a few of them too but I do not let them into our planted tank. They will be in there for ever and are like flees when you get them very hard to get rid of.
What type of habitat did to net to find the shrimp?
The PK shrimp were in dense patches of cat tails with lots of leaves on the bottom. It was hard to even get the skimmer in there due to it being so dense. Right now there is minimal weed coverage post winter, so they must have moved to the best cover they could find.
The scuds were everywhere. I got scuds in every scoop I took throughout the pond. The densest area for scuds was in submerged moss. A 3" x3" piece of moss would have dozens of scuds in it. I also scooped up some tad poles, a salamander, and tons of other bugs. Amazing how much life was going on in there that I never saw.
I also checked the big pond and there was significantly less bugs, but I kept scooping up 1" BG in the same type of areas.
It's about 3,000 sqft and 8' deep. It freezes over solid in the winter. It is really a sediment pond leading into the main 1 acre pond. The water stays clear and there doesn't appear to be much sediment getting washed into it. I have no aeration on the forage pond at this time, but I want to add it.
It is surrounded by trees on all but the east side, so it is shaded from the afternoon sun. There is a tiny creek running into it from the woods that runs all year, except in the winter when frozen and in the dryest week of Summer. Except in the heaviest rain, the creek doesn't provide more water than the 6" stand pipe to the main pond can handle.
The stand pipe to the main pond is 6" and open on top but with a tee to a 4" pipe that draws water from 3' deep. I think I will extend it to draw deeper this year. Most of the time the 4" pipe is all that is needed to control the water level. If the water level rises a few inches higher, it dumps down through the top of the 6" pipe. If it gets much higher than that, there is an emergency spillway that joins to the main pond's outflow.
The scuds seem to love the moss around the edge of the pond. Due to the overflow setup, the water levels periodically rise and fall 4-6" depending on rain and flood the moss for a week or so.
I plan on adding some hardy lillies to the pond for shade and maybe fathead egg laying sites.
I didn't build it so I am making the best of what i have. I did stock it with a pound of fatheads around the same time as the shrimp and I sometimes see them.