Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Hyalella azteca

you said you were going to raise them in different areas and some controlled right?? let us know how they do?

I ordered from Prairie Land Management, Inc., in Glenwood, MN. I've put them in 2 aquariums in the house, my small pond, and my bigger pond. I have a small order (30) of Hyalella azteca coming. They shipped today.

They do not seem to be listed on their web site?

RAH,

Here's a link. They are under "Food Plot Seed" for some reason.

http://www.habitatnow.com/store/shop/shop.php?pn_selected_category=19

Thank you! I ordered mine with regular delivery so I hope they arrive OK.

If I get some open water in Feb, I think I will invest a few pesos as well. Please post back and let us know if yours arrived healthy.

I took a look at my small pond around noon today. A thin film of ice had formed overnight, but was thawing around the edges. I saw a scud swimming beneath the ice, so at least one made it through the night.

I got two orders today when I wasn't expecting anything until tomorros. The Hyalella azteca came as well as the Daphnia. They were what I was expecting tomorrow. The water plant seeds also came, and I hadn't heard anything from the supplier about when they would ship. Everything turned out alright, except I spilled some of the Daphnia on my carpet. Goodby Daphnia.

Sorry to hear about the casualties. What's the plan for the scuds and surviving Daphnia? Aquarium or pond?

I put some of everything in all three places. The azteca are much smaller than rhe gammarus. I'd guess the gammarus are from 100 to 1,000 times heavier. The azteca must be very young. When fully grown, azteca are about half as long as gammarus. I put them in separate tanks. The tank with the azteca looks like it's empty, but maybe before long they'll get big enough and numerous enough to see that there's something in there.

Hey TM,

How are all the newbies doing in your aquariums? What are you feeding the scuds and Daphnia? Please post a pick or two of your setups if you get a chance.

Everything seems to be doing okay. The azteca are all but invisible, but now and then I see one. The Daphnia pulex cysts have hatched or whatever it is that they do, and there are a bunch of them buzzing around in the bottom of two bowls among the much "larger" D. magna(or something like that). I don't do photos, not since the era of film ended. I'm not doing well in the high tech era. I've put a little FA in with everything and they seem to eat that. I've also add a bit of crumbled flake fish food at times. Don't know if anything is eating that. I've also been adding 2 drops of plankton food to the Daphnia bowles each day. That came with the order. I don't know what's in it. Daphnia can eat very small things, such as bacteria. I don't think any of these critters are especially fussy eaters. The real question is, how are they doing in the main pond, and I may never know the answer. But if I eventually find some scud in there, I'll at least know part of the answer. A healthy population of scud has been my goal. The same for Palaemonetes kadiakensis, but I haven't latched onto any of them yet. And I may order a dozen or more papershell crayfish in June. Seems like crustaceans have the potential to greatly strengthen the food base of a pond.

They arrived today in great shape (zero dead). They also dug right into shrimp pellets and some were mating. I will have two different 10 gallon tanks to monitor over a longer period.

That's good to know about the regular delivery.

I put some of mine in a 10 gal tank in a dark place in the livingroom and some in a 3 gal aquarium in a front window. I read that they should be kept in a dark location, but the ones in the window seem to be happier (livelier) than the ones in the darker place. About 9 out of 10 of the ones in the window are mating, but so far no sign of baby scuds. If there are any, they may be too small to see.

Both of my tanks get light, so that is good to know. This sure is fun!

RAH, Did you buy the 1 cup and split them between the two tanks?

RAH and Turtlemtn, Are you guys using gravel in the aquariums? What are you feeding them? I read in an old thread that maple leaves work well as food. Are you using any filtration or other aeration? Come on guys details! I was going to wait to order till I get open water but I currently have a 20 gallon sitting idle I could hold some in till the open water shows up.

I have some aquarium gravel in the bottom of the aquariums - mostly to hold the bubblers down. I'm using the smallest punps and bubblers I have. I think one is more properly called a stone. No filters. I've been feeding them a little flake fish food and FA. They are eating a surprising amount of FA. I realized this evening that the gammarus scuds in the 10 gal tank had eaten all the FA. So I raked a little more out of the pond and added some to the 3 aquariums and the 2 bowls the Daphnia are in. I also put some in the aquarium with the FHM. I crumbled up a dead leaf off a dead lemon tree and put that in one of the scud tanks. They seemed to like that. A few days ago I poured a little water I had boiled potatoes in into one of the tanks. They didn't like that. They dove to the bottom and curled up. I thought I'd killed them, but I guess it was a defensive strategy, and after a bit they were moving around again. So far, they've survived poisoning and starvation.

My wife put 30 of the scuds in each tank. One tank is in a greenhouse without heat that is attached to our walkout basement on the south side of the house and stays above freezing. The other tank is in the basement and has a bubble filter running very slowly. It also has a light on a timer, and has gravel on some of the bottom. A flat piece of slate will be added today, held up on some stones to create more cover and dark spots. There was already algae growing in the tanks as they have been set up for a while. They also both have established plants that were collected from one of our shallow ponds. We have started by feeding shrimp pellets which they immediately attacked. They will also periodically get "green water" from a tropical tank that is overpopulated with swordtails. Not enough time has gone by to know if these will survive and breed. Right now, they are crammed under the filter for cover.

When I raked FA out of my pond last year, there were many different kinds of small bugs and worm like critters all the way up to teeny tiny BG.

If you put FA out of your pond you might also find out you have other critters reproducing in your tank. Probably not as likely pulling fresh FA off the bottom compared to the surface mats I was dealing with.

Interesting project you guys have. If I get bad FA again maybe I will try to pay more attention to the numerous bugs in it. Has me curious now what some of them were. Had a lot more flow through water this year so hoping the nutrient level in the pond is down compared to last year following a drought so maybe will not have to fight the FA as bad this year. Hope eternal.

What did you do with the rest of the order? Pond?

They escaped:)

I'm sure the FA from the pond has critters in it, but part of the purpose of the scud in the tanks is to add more to the pond, so they'll have to deal with those critters eventually.

Maybe something to that method in the old thread of putting a layer of maple leaves in the bottom of a scud tank, i.e., forage and cover?

I'll let folks know how this works out. If I had researched this up front, then I would have added the leaves a few weeks back. Maybe I'll see if I can scavenge some submerged leaves this weekend from somewhere.

RAH and Turtlemtn,

How are your scuds doing? Any updates. I ordered some today. Any suggestions or things you would have done differently?