They are a good addition to improve the food chain IF they have the correct habitat to survive, reproduce, and annually provide new scuds into the food chain. Otherwise you are just temporarily feeding your fish and putting extra cash in the vendor's pocket. Without the proper habitat to survive long term it is basically the same as annually dumping FHMinnows into the pond which lots of people do regularly. Better management is to utilize species that are able to survive long term the predatory pressure of the current fishery in a well balanced pond based on ones goals. Similar to the bluegill in combination with LM bass, which in most cases, is a self sustaining fish combination. I have tried stocking scuds in a small NW Ohio pond that just had minnows - shiners. Scuds did not survive due to what I believe was a temperature problem rather than a predator - habitat problem.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 08/20/13 07:11 PM.
