Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding freshwater shrimp "scuds" for a trout pond

Hi Bill, welcome to the forum!

Shrimp and Scuds are a great source of forage but I don't have any experience with extreme conditions like yours. Scuds are tiny and are prolific in lakes north of us in SD and ND. In Devil's Lake they are the foundation for a great YP, NP and WE fishery. It's hard for me to conceive how this tiny invertabrate can possibly sustain such strong game fish populations in Devil's Lake, but they do. I'll bet you have scuds in CO. You could contact your local NRCS agent and inquire. As long as you can properly identify the Scud you could collect them yourself and stock your ponds - all for free.

Ghost/Glass/Grass Shrimp are a different story. Many forum members have stocked a freshwater shrimp in their ponds as to supplement their forage base. The Shrimp we stock are translucent, average .5 - 1.5", and require aquatic vegetation as a source habitat for spawning and protection. Their diet consists of algae and detritus. The species we stock are cold water tolerant and are called Mississippi Grass Shrimp, or Palaemonetes kadiakensis. Some of us have had success establishing them, some have not. In my ponds I have abundant aquatic vegetation in the form of horned pondweed, so their populations exploded. I'm a pretty happy pondmeister.

Dale Fattig of Fattig Fish sells these Shrimp and advertises in Pond Boss magazine and is also on the resource guide. We [forum members] often pool our orders as pricing is contingent on quantity. The going rate for orders over 3,000 is currently $.25/shrimp plus $30 flat shipping. I attached a couple photos to this post of my PK Shrimp. The females are gravid - the green coloration are eggs, I believe. I'm anticipating yet another population explosion soon!

If you are interested in helping your trout to grow more quickly, another consideration is pellet feeding. Many forum members employ a supplemental pellet feeding program with great success. Tons of info on the forum regarding this topic.

Hope this proves helpful. Again, welcome to the forum, and let us know about your pond and your goals. PS: WE LOVE PICTURES!