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

["Hess, Clay A" <clay.a.hess@boeing.com>]

I thought a scud was a missile used for Middle Eastern urban renewal
projects.

Clay 

-----Original Message-----
From: Clifford Miller [mailto:clifford@clevergeek.com] 
Sent: Friday, November 09, 2007 12:58 PM
To: gsas-member@thekrib.com
Subject: [GSAS-Member] risks to aquarium fish from my pond
tank?(scuds/fairy shrimp)


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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