Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations ID Help Please

I got so bored that I took my shrimp net in the freezing cold and made a couple pulls on the bottom leaves in a neighborhood stormwater easement type pond.

Can some of you experts please help me identify these that I found, some kind of clams and glass shrimp?

It is a fresh water spring fed pond.

Top are scuds, most likely Hyalella azteca.

Second are clams, specifically fingernail clams, Sphaeriidae.

Tasty food for fish...

Top ones are too big for Hyalella. They are a Gammarus and probably G.fasciatus or G. lacustris.

CJ has the clams correct fingernail clams in the family Sphaeriidae. There are three pretty common genera with species in each genus.

Both suggest good water quality. The clams will not live in anoxic sediments (no DO).

Thanks for the info fellas. Would it be a good or bad idea to introduce these species into my forage pond and even my main pond? This is basically the same watershed.

The real question is would you put these into your ponds?

I'm sure BG and minnows will like the scuds. Wouldn't RES eat the clams? My pond does not have RES yet, but I'm thinking it will soon.

Note: I still have these in a bucket and the scuds are mating. Some of them are paired up with one on the others back.

I would forego the clams. I've seen them implicated with parasites.

Thanks Cecil. Here is a pic of a couple the scuds pushing each other around.



They are hardy little things, they got caught in freezing temps and been in a 5 gal bucket for 4 days and look at em.

Both species are native to your area, so introducing them to your pond is a good thing for a diverse food chain. It would be unlikely the scuds would take hold in an established pond without extensive cover and even then it would be a challenge. In a new pond without fish, you would have better luck.

If you were trying to grow larger RES, the fingernail clams would be an excellent food source. Cecil, do you know what type of parasites fingernail clams harbor? I had not heard of them as being a host to any fish parasites.

http://books.google.com/books?id=1WXuP_4...tes&f=false

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CCgQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwater.usgs.gov%2Fwrri%2F00grants%2FNJfish.pdf&ei=BOgTU-W0BsehkQfmm4C4Aw&usg=AFQjCNHBk2v5JNMhsz8zkhcG-GR0Xh1KfA&bvm=bv.61965928,d.eW0

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=7&ved=0CEkQFjAG&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hccfl.edu%2Fmedia%2F472154%2Flecture%252014%2520and%252015%2520aquatic%2520parasites.ppt&ei=BOgTU-W0BsehkQfmm4C4Aw&usg=AFQjCNEteu8tXcDwz1EMb83hiu8HOKsppw&bvm=bv.61965928,d.eW0

I'll have to check my pond out very good with my shrimp net. It's possible that both these species are already in there. I just don't know. I catch these same scuds in the freshwater creeks here, when I'm trapping minnows. But I have never got any clams in my traps.

These stormwater easement type ponds are all over the place around here. They are mostly very small like 1/4 acre and very shallow, around 1-2 ft. Most of them have no fish in them because they were never stocked. But they are full of forage like frogs, tadpoles, snails, small minnows and now I found clams. I am very tempted to use these ponds for forage for my pond. But I know there is always a risk.

I would guess that you already have them in your pond, MSC.

But hand stocking is such a joy, why deprive yourself??

Sunil, I am still in the process of evaluating exactly whats in my pond. I hope you are right and it already has scuds in there.

I am really itching to put forage in for the LMB mostly, but also the BG. But I am not good at identifying the small things I find. I don't want to make a mistake and introduce the wrong thing in the pond. So I want to stick with whats in this same watershed. Thank goodness for you experts here that help me identify potential forage that I catch or trap.

I also need to get at least a hundred more smaller LMB out ASAP. And I have to identify the school of baitfish I saw that were not LMB or BG. I think they looked like GSH which are native to the creeks around here, but they could have never made it into this pond without help.

And of course, now everything is frozen over again.