[GSAS-Member] risks to aquarium fish from my pond tank? (scuds/fairy shrimp)

["Clifford Miller" <clifford@clevergeek.com>]

A few weeks ago I grabbed about a gallon of water and a few handfulls or
rotting leaves from a local Shoreline pond, hoping to get some daphnia
ephippia I could culture at home. I dropped it into a 30 gallon, and have
been spending more time watching the bugs than my fish lately...

ALL KINDS of stuff has shown up including daphnia, something that looks
just like daphnia but swims very smoothly, ostracods, several kinds of
cyclopse, and scuds (possibly fairy shrimp? I had added some fairy shrimp
eggs to this tank prior to the pond muck, but never saw anything hatch.
Now that I can see the crustaciens, I would say they were scuds, but they
could be the shrimp...? I have no idea how common scuds are in this area).

The scuds/shrimp seem to get almost as large as my cherry shrimp, but
reproduce more quickly.  I'd like to use them (and some of the other
critters) as fish food, but I've also noticed a variety of life in the
tank usually looked at negatively- including planeria, a few aquatic worms
(that could possibly be harmfull?), and some very small (2 mm or so)
hydra.

Would using these be a bad idea?  I know there is a always a potential for
problems (as there is with buying live food from the LFS), but I also know
that there are at least several people in the group that feed from outdoor
sources...would anyone consider this an unacceptable risk?

And since I'm asking, would anyone say that scuds are just a bad idea as a
food source?  I know trout will eat them, but I'm not currently keeping
anything nearly that big.  I've read several articles by people that use
them in breeding tanks as a way to turn tank detritus into live food, but
I've also read that they can possibly kill tadpoles (which makes me think
some of my smaller fish, and any fry that I didn't move would be even more
vulnerable?), and that they can act as an intermediate host for fish
parasites.

Sorry for the long-winded message...if anyone wants some of the Arizona
Fairy Shrimp eggs I picked up on ebay, I could bring some to the meeting. 
(to be fair, these could be brine shrimp eggs for all I know ;)  )

Link to pics:  http://www.arizonafairyshrimp.com/

Cliff


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