Years ago way back in the 70's my brother and I regularly hiked to a crystal clear stream with a Sand Bottom and Watercress everywhere...On these outings we gathered many plants for our aquarium which we kept together our entire childhood. One thing we loved were what we called "fresh water shrimp" or scuds that were always hiding in the sand. We brought many home with us and put them in our aquarium where they did live very happily, though some of the larger fish ate a few. Thanks for bringing me back. Also, glad I found your channel, you are an inspiration. Still keeping fish in my 60's. One of my brothers grew up to run a fish hatchery of all things.

The way I harvest is I rotate small clumps of Java moss I use long tongs to pull the moss out of the scud tank and shake them into the tank I’m feeding… then I’ll grab a fresh clump of moss and repeat the process every 2-3 days the scuds enjoy munching on the Java moss rotating it out, gives the moss a chance to regenerate. I keep my scuds in a tank with aragonite sand . And sponge filter well cycled , this colony is quite massive in a simple 10 gal I do about a 20% wc every week or 2. Great video I’m a scud keeper , I enjoy watching them as well as a great food source🙂 -jeff.

I appreciate this dudes level of chill

I absolutely love my scuds. I got them as a live food. But then fell in love with them and their zoomie antics. Gave them their own 2.5 gallon tank. I do sometimes feed them to fish that need live food. But they are really mostly pets now. I like the nickname “fairy shrimp”😊 Great video, thanks Alex!

These little guys are truly something else. I have been culturing them for a year now and everything in your video is spot on. They don't eat plants only plant I've seen them give any trouble is moss but other than that they are harmless. These guys can survive chlorine and high salt levels. They are tough as hell. My fish love em.

Thank you for making this video! So many of these tutorial videos about aquatics are so boring and often waste a lot of time talking about unnecessary things. You are such a joy to listen to! You express yourself well, and don’t bore me to tears while actually getting to the point and teaching me a lot of information quickly. Definitely my kind of channel, I will be subscribing. Thanks again and I look forward to checking out your other videos. 🥰

Another outstanding and informative video, thanks Alex!

This was a phenomenally valuable episode. Thank you so much!

Wow just in time. Yesterday I was just thinking about scuds!

Thanks for the very informative video, Alex !!!

Amazing videos, seems like I've been watching them every day for a couple of weeks now.

I work at petsmart and I was siphoning tanks today and noticed a little bug like things swimming against the siphon. These are Scuds! They were only in the snail tanks my guess to how they got there was that probably they were a pest from the snail breeders. I took as many as I could find. I even saw a few of them piggybacking and took those and put them in a 2.5 I’m my fish room. Thank you for making this video now I can have a very nutritious live food for the rest of my aquariums!

I love scuds! I used to always feed them to my Cichlids! So fun to watch haha. Thanks for this video!

Very informative. Thank you for making this video! I like that you go into the more technical reasons for things involving planted aquarium ecosystems. Your channel has been very helpful for a beginner like me.

It's like your a mind reader! I have been wondering about this thank you so much ❤️

The fact that you have so many videos is great but I have a lot of binging to do 👍🏻 haha nice to have a friend like you to learn from ❤

I always learn a lot watching your videos. I purchased a scud culture from Aquatic Arts with your code a week ago, thank you. Starting to see some scud movement. I have a sand and small stone substrate plus Java moss and there’s some green hair algae and some plant trimmings. So scud on!!!

Put at least 100 scuds in my 1000 liter pond yesterday. Caught wild at a dam. My paradise gouramis, odessa barbs and platy pond is currently going wild. Feeding frenzie is incredible to watch.

I bought some Java moss mats from aquatic arts and they came with scuds so now my betta has a bunch of friends, I took the moss off the mats and have them on plant weights so it’s easier to take the moss out and feed other tanks (I use reptile feeding tongs and a brine-shrimp net)

Informative. Video thanks

Such useful information. Thank you so much 🎉

Very informative. Thanks!

👍👍 informative video, thanks.

Love all your intos

Thanks for the video Alex:) I been thinking of collecting this fir my fish in the summer, scuds are great

thanks alex. good info here. It may convince me to add some to my community tank for some extra nutrition and cleanup crew

Thanks. I LOVE scuds...

Devils Lake ND grows unusually large scuds that produce record growing yellow perch. Often times the scuds come flowing out of ice holes. Another large scud factory is the Bighorn River.

Great stuff as always 👍👍 Gotta get me some scuds for my community tank now..

Thanks for the video lots of info I didn't know as I raise a few ways

Thank you, very informative.

Great job! That's all good information. Scuds are useful and fun critters. In the tanks I raise shrimp in, they are not invited. But in all the other tanks they are part of the ecosystem and a food source. My Bettas and guppies keep them in ✅

I ordered from the recommended shop using your code. Thanks.

I love this channel.

To collect them I throw in a slice of cucumber or zucchini. Come back in 20-30 minutes and scoop up the zucchini . It is usually covered with scuds. I feed the scuds and put the zucchini back to collect again. I’ve found scuds to be the most consistent live food to raise for my nano fish that only like live food such as pea puffers and Elassoma gilberti. They also work well with daphnia so you get double the live food. I keep in 5 gallon buckets.

I am revisiting this video because I can validate they are excellent to keep algae away! However, they are very hard to keep with other fish. I got them accidentally with a plant order and little by little they started to populate my shrimp/only tank. I cannot say the shrimp were thriving and the plants were Ok. I decided to place an electric blue crayfish there and obviously he ate all the plants that were not thriving anyway. I had an algae problem in my goldfish tank so I removed the hair-algae-infested plants in hopes that my crayfish will eat them. What I discovered the next day is that the crayfish only ate a few stems but the hair algae was gone! So I tried it again with other plants and I had the same results. Based on that, I am keeping a separate culture tank in my basement and not only will I be feeding my fish scuds from time to time but I will use it for quick algae-cleaning baths for my plants. Thanks for such a great video!

Love all your content, it’s all the reasons why I fell in love with keeping fish 🐠 can you please do some videos on patio ponds.

another awesome video / content. Saludos desde Costa Rica :)

awesome. thanks for that video

Great info. Makes me wanna think about starting a scud tank 😄

I saw at the end that little black box with a micro metal looking screen used to scoop them out with… it looked like a coffee filter I picked up at a thrift… thanks for the info and a repurpose idea🙃

Decide to keep a scud culture, Fishtory always comes through ❤

I adore these little creatures since I first saw them in the stream as a high school student. Recently I did a massive research, and 3 weeks ago I started a natural aquarium project. I have a planted tank, substrate + sand, the water is greenish, I'm soaking a piece of wood from the forest to add tannins, my tank does have detrius, rocks from the gammarus stream, proper aeriation and happy fish. However the gammarus that I added first to the aquarium, kept dying, I found a dying gammarus every couple of days. Even if I saw some of them putting pieces of detrius into their mouth. Today morning I found my last gammarus dead and I'm devastated. I'm wondering how to keep these beautiful creatures alive... I can only find articles about handling "gammarus-infested" tanks, how sturdy they are, how it's almost impossible to kill them... And yet here I am, the loser who just wants to observe their life, but they constantly die on me... Can you give me some advice based on this, how to keep them happy?

I like your nursery idea.. (also Dan's Fish vid) But, have several of those in a scud tank. Modify the lids with holes and mesh. Drop one into feed fish, when you go away for a week.

Looking rested and at the top of your game! Great job!

I’ll say it again: I love your channel and I love my scuds. Always amazed when I put 20 or so scuds into a container with an algae-covered plant and they eat the algae and leave the plant alone. At least that’s been my experience. My experience has also been that even adding over 50 to a 10 gal tank won’t make a dent in algae if there is a lot of mulm and detritus or a lot of fish in the tank, so I don’t use them for algae control in a tank, only in a separate container to clean a plant if needed - in this context they are amazing algae eaters. For fun, I keep some scuds in a few beautifully planted vases and they mostly leave the plants alone. In these vases I do not feed the scuds and they take care of any plant matter that isn’t healthy but without extra food, they do not seem to reproduce much - or maybe they eat their own young. Maybe I just have odd scuds that don’t eat my plants or have plants the scuds don’t like. Surprisingly stable in these planted vases long term. Been keeping scuds as food cultures for several years now. I put scuds in most of my tanks and keep a few cultures solo in ½ gal small vases with gravel/crushed coral and a big ball of pearl weed or java moss - I keep water topped off with tank water and sometimes add fish food. Keeping at least one of these small vases in front of my kitchen window gives me green water and lots of baby scuds. (However if a scud gets into green water with my copepods or my seed shrimp, I end up with only scuds - I assume scuds are eating them?) I often pull any size other than largest scuds and feed them to all my non-nano fish. I never add scuds to my nano fish tanks or to my shrimp tanks because I don’t want the scuds surviving to be large enough to eat nano fish fry or baby shrimp. Not taking chances there. Baby endlers are so tiny! When I have large scuds in excess I add some to my 75g for my bigger fish to hunt. I often find scuds living in my hob filter material. Tanks with fish rarely have scuds visible to me, so they definitely haven’t been able to take over. And it’s the one food source I’ve been able to maintain long term. (Getting a good handle on seed shrimp now too.)

Thank you Alex~

I find scuds very interesting. I had never heard of them in our aquarium hobby (the Netherlands). As far as I know they aren't even for sale here. I feel water fleas are more common here instead. Its fun to see the differences in the hobby between countries

Thank you so much for this! I tried scuds once and my guppies didn’t give them a chance. I didn’t know anything! I figured they would be good enough to hide on a very planted tank. Now I got some as hitchhikers in my Java moss and they are a welcomed guest. I think I have enough biofilm, algae and food but you make me think that they will cause issues long term on my 5 gallon shrimp planted tank. I won’t get rid of them but you are making me think it is best to remove the shrimp and maybe see if I can get a culture going on. By the way! I have been looking for isopods from retailers but had no luck. They look so awesome and I would love to keep some. Maybe that can be a topic for the future! Thanks again and stay safe. Feel better too!

Yea! A video that isn't bashing the crap out of scuds. Scuds are amazing and while yes they will eat live plants sometimes that's not really an issue if you know how to work around. I believe the positive benefits far outweigh anything negative. Like you said if there are fish in there they really can't overpopulate. I have found that to be true. Thanks for the deep dive and the positive video about scuds.

My last time with scuds was when they turned carnivore. Amazing thing to watch.

I found a huge number of them in a nearby lake living in hornwort. So, I collected both for my outdoor tubs!

Great info, thanks! Btw, those angelfish in the background seem to have alot of plants in all directions :)

Thanks!

Ah I get it now, S.C.U.D - Small Creatures, Useful Design ❤

Thank you for your video. I am just learning obout live food. how would scuds go outside? we have varying weather conditions here the full6 seasons.

I love how all your videos are so in depth and researched! I just ordered some scuds, primarily to feed to my puffer, so planning on keeping them in a separate set up but do they need a light cycle or would they be ok if kept in the dark, under my tank, in the cabinet? Also would they coexisit well with snails? I’d like to condense my live food cultures as much as possible but I would think that they would out compete the snails for food and/or eat the eggs.

Don't have a filter, but I do have an air stone and top off their water with old fish water. My colony is thriving.

I've always wondered what scuds actually looked like. Pretty alien looking lil critters. Now if only they would eat planaria they would be perfect, lol. 👍❤️👍

I have scuds from collecting duckweed, water primrose(ludwigia), daphina, mosquito larvae, & moss from 2 area lakes. My fish enjoy them. Have over 8 containers where they range in various numbers.

Cool

Wow i was googling for scuds and this released 20 minutes ago. Talk about timing

I found alot swimming around my tank and couldnt find out, daphnia or scuds, seems i must have both but i i can see my little new fish eating them. Probaly got them from previously bought fishwater

You're awesome. I wonder if you're a biologist... You know your business...

Hello!!! Another great video! Question: Do you have any advice for setting up a quarantine/disinfecting/treatment tank for scuds that I can use to make sure they are healthy and safe for my aquarium?? I have 4 or 5 dosen scuds I caught in a local lake and wNt to use them in my planted dirt/sand sub food web/eco system tank. (You advised me on this tank and collection buckets in the comments of your outdoor collection/culturing methods.

Out of black worms Daphnia and these which would you recommend for keeping. Thank you for all you do love your content and once I get some mulah I'm going to be donating.

This video was so helpful! I just happened upon these creatures when they came with the plants from the fish store, and now they are definitely making more in my planted tank! Question: my tank is currently fishless, only scuds and aquascaping. I had wanted to add some shrimp and corys and one rabbit snail. I’m okay if the scuds eat some shrimp and the corys eat some scuds, but am I risking losing all my scuds this way? Second question: I have a 3-gallon planted tank with just a betta and snail. It is filterless due to the tank’s unusual shape, so I have to keep up on cleanings, but it has balanced out well. If I add some scuds to that tank are they likely to survive the low-oxygen conditions? Thanks so much for your informative video, I definitely saved this video for future reference and will watch more!

Informative video, thank you! Discovered your channel maybe a month ago and it aligns with my tank keeping goals as well. I wanted to ask a quick question as someone who set up my first planted/ecosystem tank and have been finding a lot of mixed messages about scuds in shrimp tanks. I have a planted 13 gallon that I've intended to showcase shrimp in. I currently have 3 mystery snails and have been waiting for the tank to season before getting neos from my lfs. My plants have really filled in and I have some algae on my wood/rock/filter and noticed a scud about two weeks ago that I spotted again today. To be honest, I was pretty excited at first! But after doing more research I'm getting worried they might outcompete my future shrimp. I'm not really interested in any nuclear options to deconstruct the tank since I don't mind having them, I'd just also love to have shrimp. Do you think its reasonable to try and manage their population by baiting with zucchini for example, or am I setting myself up for sadness lol?

Well, in my more father fish inspired moments, I did add some stuff to my tank earlier on and I finally ID'd and caught a scud in my tank. I'll see if s/he survives in his isolation jar. If it multiplies, I'll feed them to my daughter's guppies and keep it away from my shrimp and snails for now. Tons of copepods in my green water bin. I have a few other funky things in the main tank that I'm still trying to identify.

Great video! I introduced them by accident to a native aquarium I had some years ago with some wild myriophyllum that I found in a pond, and them were amazing. I was wandering how would you recomend to clean them up from parasites if collecting wild since it seems imposible to get them here where I live from a trusty source like a fish store or something

I agree, they do have great clean up methods and it’s one of my cleanest tanks because of them. However, we had a whole colony of assassins sails breeding in our tank, and once the scuds started popping up they slowly started eating and killing our assassins snails. Now all that’s left is empty shells. We put a mystery snail in the tank and he was dead within two days. How do I get ride of them for good? We have done water changes however that just lowers the amount of scuds in the tank. We don’t want them anymore and would rather have our snails back.

Tip: while studying entomology and in the breeding and colonization of terrestrial insects, i learned that population growth rate directly corresponds to the size of rhe habitat, and the size and consistency of food supply. When breeding terrestrial isopods and other insects, i would always alowly taper the ammount of food i i would give them. It worked really well!!! I bet this concept would qork for a uda as well!!!

Hi Alex and everyone in the fish fam

You were right the first time. It's square meters, square meter of bottom. They are for the most part bottom dwellers...and yes that means if there is a 3 foot thick matte of plant material, yes that is still considered bottom. It's not water column.

Really want to try scuds. GF not enjoying my MTS. Not sure I'll get away with it but may have to make a hidden container...

Viva la Replay Crew!

So this is like 3 months old, but I wait till this time of year and collect them! They all come from the same spot. But I keep them in their own tank as pets. I also am patient enough to try and treat them as well. Lol.

Did you just say you will put a dead fish into a compost tank? That’s cool, I like the scud idea, I have been thinking about establishing something like what you get with a marine tank with amphipods in freshwater, I looked into sea monkeys but they have to be dried out. I am thinking more of the idea of a refugium than a nursery, yeah same thing right, but I think refugium would imply a bigger stationary thing. Good explanation too. I definitely want to have them in the tank rather than dropped in for feeding. Especially with bigger more aggressive fish I think it is beneficial for the fish to be concentrated more on food that may be found rather than messing with each other for tank dominance. Thanks.

Ah, so I've had scuds all this time but didn't know what they were. I had an abandoned tank of water that turned green and they grew so large. Also, an easy way to grow green water - add yeast to water, stand it in the sun for 3 days and it'll turn bright green. A few more days and it'll be even brighter. No need to buy spirulina and such. I found that feeding scuds yeast directly clouds the water too much and they die. Tank detritus and uneaten fish food is the best.

I’ll comment at the en🙂👍🏻

Awesome video as always Alex. Is there a way to keep scuds out of a canister filter? Or is it just something you have to accept?

I think i'm going to have to order up some scuds for my little planted tank. It currently has a single male betta and a cory cat in it. Hoping that the scuds can be somewhat self sustaining, population wise, with java fern, drift wood, etc to hide in and around.

Would i be able to seed the back part of a matten filter to feed the main part of the tank with scuds? Also would they be able to exist in the same culture as something like live blackworms?

I think I have some outside in a bucket. What do they look like so I can be sure. They look small an white visible to the eye to me.

Mosquito larvae are fast growers. I wish i lived in the tropics to harvest these year round

😊

I only recently started some scuds. They can be problematic but they have worked well for me. In case I can't finish this tonight I want to ask if they are a problem with baby shrimp? I think they are but maybe I had something else going on.

I got some scuds today. I'm not exactly sure but it seems they're eating my copepods. They'll swim up to the Amazon frogbit grab a copepod sink down to the bottom, while eating, then swim back up. They're a lot more interesting to watch than I thought.

When you say scuds can eat shrimp, are you talking neocaridina or amanos? And, would you recommend dumping a colony in a 15 gallon aquascaped pea puffer tank (for an occasional snack) or keeping them separately? Thank you! I always appreciate your wealth of knowledge. 😊

I have a scud tank Alex hey I’m first! Well it was close 😅

Awesome video- if I only have space for a scud colony tank or hatching bbs, are bbs usually better overall? (Non-breeding apisto tank, fully planted)

The colony in my 20L is gone, so none in the new 10g. I am conflicted about that but since I've not added fish yet, all the 1st time pregnant shrimp are safe.

I can get these from a local fishless spring/pond. You mentioned treating disease, is it known how effective med's are on the Pomphorhynchus laevis or acanthocephalan worm. I used metronidazole on my rams with success, but want to breed them, so live food. Are daphnia safer?

So are these the things that look like woodlice living in my pond? Thanks for video 👍

I did have them clear all of the vegetation out of a 20-gallon outdoor tub. I should have added more fish. All that was in it was a male betta. But he was fat and pretty!

@Fishtory I was hoping to figure out how to source all the biodiversity in your tank could i order some of your water to seed my tanks with all the random worm life and whatnot i have fish shrimp n snail tanks and 2 im about to setup that im not sure how id like to setup other than heavily planted and super biodiverse cant choose my substrate yet and not certain on capping ive been watching your videos and still cant decide i wanna minimize water changes and having to add nutes i wanna create pretty self sustainable tanks

Are scuds something that could be cultured then frozen and fed in cube form to fish to avoid them colonizing the tank? I'm going to have shrimp in my tank and don't want scuds eating them.

Due to the potential issues scuds can present to plants, would neocardinia shrimp or ostracods (seed shrimp) be a good alternative for a live food in the tank?

Two questions. I am new and wish to learn more before making mistakes So I am gonna build a tank from scratch and so... How do we raise our own feeding breeding ect.. amd are they suitable for all fish to eat or certain kinds? Then wjere do we go to get all the stuff for substrates amd plants?

I have a slate bottom for a substrate for a 70g axolotl and white cloud minnow tank with some live plants . Gonna put leaf litter in it soon do ya recommend scuds or shrimp as a cleaning crew