They are most abundant here when falling leaves dominate food chain. During warm season they become down right hard to find. Exceptions are populations occurring in springs (not appropriate for pond stocking) and the sometimes hard to find Hyalella spp. I seldom fine abundant Hyalella sp. except in some catfish ponds. Sight oriented fish seem to keep numbers too low for effective harvesting.
Have you had just as much success seeing/netting them in the middle of the summer when you were there? I'm not sure why folks who harvest them focus on through the ice or at ice out.
Canyon - Summer is the only time we have ever messed with them. That video was during the Summer. I have never paid attention to them any other time.
I would imagine that if I ever get the Trout to survive the Winter and reproduce my scud numbers would eventually decline.
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I wonder if all scuds are basically the same? I have a culture that we use for tropical fish that we are going to try to ramp up our size of culture to add to our pond.
I guess I can put them into a glass of water then put them into the fridge and see if they live or die.
We have found that they really love high protein fish food that sinks. They love leafs. 2"s of forest leafs in a tote they will fill the tote in 6 weeks.
Scuds - It depends on what you mean by basically the same. They all have a commonality of body features that put them in the taxonomic family of Gammaridae in the Class of Amphipoda. There are around 150 species in American freshwaters and worldwide about 900 species! They occur in a wide variety of primarily unpolluted waters: ponds lakes, streams, brooks, springs and subterranean waters. The numerous species undoubtedly have a wide tolerance to water temperature with most common ones preferring cool, well oxygenated water. Many call them freshwater shrimp although they are distantly related to shrimp, thus not truly shrimp. They are rather slow moving, easy prey and thus they need quite a bit of dense habitat such as weeds for long term survival when fish are present as intense predators.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 02/12/1808:57 PM.
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Very interesting Azteca! Makes me start wondering about fish appearing in BOWs where they were not stocked by man. Although most agree birds do not transport fish eggs on their feet, could they transfer eggs or tiny fry stuck in their plumage? ....I can easily envision a duck swimming thru a school of new hatched fish and some of those tiny critters getting trapped between feathers.....
I want to do an experiment with Gammarus and Azteca in my little pond of Yellow perch larvae, in large quantities they will eat the filamentous algae and later will serve as food for the fry.
To catch them, I made a trap with pieces of fish.
Are there any members here who have already experienced it , I would like to know if the scuds can eat the larvae at the beginning.
Very interesting Azteca! Makes me start wondering about fish appearing in BOWs where they were not stocked by man. Although most agree birds do not transport fish eggs on their feet, could they transfer eggs or tiny fry stuck in their plumage? ....I can easily envision a duck swimming thru a school of new hatched fish and some of those tiny critters getting trapped between feathers.....
I have personally watched a great blue heron chum the water by puking up in our pond to bring in more minnows and eat them. IF by chance there was minnows that were still alive in the herons gut I expect they could swim away.
Originally Posted By: azteca
Hello.
I want to do an experiment with Gammarus and Azteca in my little pond of Yellow perch larvae, in large quantities they will eat the filamentous algae and later will serve as food for the fry.
To catch them, I made a trap with pieces of fish.
Are there any members here who have already experienced it , I would like to know if the scuds can eat the larvae at the beginning.
A+
I have two 2.5 gallon tanks in my shop that I am raising scuds. The ones I have do not grow much larger then 3mm full grown. Their young are very very small and make great food for small fry. I do not know if they are small enough for new born Yellow Perch fry but could be close.
I am growing some green water tanks for rotifers to feed our new hatch yellow perch. Brine shrimp were too big and not enough for the yellow perch.
If you can find away to get the perch past that stage where they can eat brine shrimp please let me know.