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

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

That too.  Prior to wanting to try them as fish food, the only time I've
heard the word mentioned in a non-bomb context is by wiley old
fly-fishermen....

Apparently in late fall when other bugs/larvae get scarce there are still
plenty of scuds around in some waters, making it a pretty effective
pattern.

I guess I could have said Gammarus instead of scuds...but I thought the
common name would be more familiar.  Mine look pretty similar to the ones
pictured at http://www.troutnut.com/specimen/379, except less dead.

Cliff



> 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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