Scuds gotten out of control

[Luciferkrist]

My shrimp and Chili rasbora tank has become completely overrun with scuds. I cannot keep any plans in it, as they just devour them faster than they can grow.

How do I get rid of these critters? I can't try most chemical options as they will hurt my shrimp, and I worry about my rasboras surviving. I don't really have another tank I can put the fish in right now, and I have no idea if I can even save this tank.

Has anybody here successfully fought back from a scud invasion, or should I just start up another tank and transfer anything I want to keep and just nuke this 10gallon?

[nabokovfan87]

Considering it's just a 10G, maybe the best thing to do is to pull shrimp one by one....

Shrimp into QT, verify no scuds, shrimp into new tank.

....and then try to be sure you have a mechanism for using (feeding them to fish) the scuds or something to keep them in check.

Unfortunately, a lot of shrimp tanks can get overrun and it's frustrating.  I ran into similar issues trying to find something to predate on detritus worms, but nothing really worked apart from manual removal.

https://aquariumbreeder.com/scuds-in-shrimp-and-fish-tank/

 

[Odd Duck]

I’ve been battling scud overgrowths in a few tanks but adding pygmy cories and micropredators has helped.  I’ve just switched my 14 G cube to chili rasboras and the pygmies, plus there are still some shrimp in there (they nearly got wiped out but I think they’re finally coming back).  I try to deliberately underfeed that tank a bit to encourage the micropredators (chilis) to pop down to the bottom and eat the fresh hatched scuds.  Nip the population in the bud.  It seems to be tipping the balance between them and the cories and the cories working them over.

I have a 20 long with Betta persephones that’s overrun with scuds that’s about to get some pygmy cories, too, once they’re done with quarantine.  I also recently added some cull shrimp to that tank because I don’t really want to notice the shrimp in that tank, I want to see the fish.

I’m apparently stupidly fond of small, dark fish that I rarely see.  🤦🏻‍♀️ 🤷🏻‍♀️ 

[Jennifer V]

Could you sell or give away scuds to local hobbyists? People who keep fish like pea puffers will gladly take them. 

[Odd Duck]

On 6/16/2023 at 6:45 AM, Jennifer V said:

Could you sell or give away scuds to local hobbyists? People who keep fish like pea puffers will gladly take them. 

The problem is collecting them from the tanks where there’s too many.  They are surprisingly fast which I’m sure is why they haven’t been decimated by the Betta persephones.  Even if I siphoned my water changes (when I’m actively pursuing them and comically so) from those tanks into a bucket (which mostly I don’t) there wouldn’t be enough to sell since they would get netted out of the bucket and added to my own pea puffer tanks, angelfish tanks, nanofish tanks, etc.  I have lots of fish that would love the scuds for a snack, they just got out of control when I had no fish in certain tanks for a while, then added less vigorous hunters or very small nanofish that can only take newly hatched or very small scuds.  The populations are getting rebalanced, but not quite there in the 14 G cube (since the chili rasboras and pygmy cories are so tiny) or the 20 long (persephones seem to be rather lazy hunters).  I have 2 jars that I set up just for scud cultures but I need to move them since I can’t access the top of them well enough to top off these jars so the scud cultures aren’t doing as well as I want in order to harvest regularly.

Too many scuds in a couple tanks, too few where I want them.  😆 🤷🏻‍♀️ 

[Guppysnail]

@Odd Duck could you make a pseudo type planaria trap and bait it?

[Odd Duck]

On 6/16/2023 at 10:31 AM, Guppysnail said:

@Odd Duck could you make a pseudo type planaria trap and bait it?

I’ve tried my small fish trap bottle and end up with more fish than scuds in it then it’s comical to try to release the fish without losing the few scuds I caught.  🤡 🚗  I’d have to put something over the neck of the bottle that would keep fish out but still let scuds in and mostly keep them in.  Mostly I think I just need to add more competition for the scuds (cull shrimp into the 20 long) and predators (more of the pygmy cories in the 14 G and a group in the 20 long, too).  The scud numbers are slowly dropping so I hope to get a resurgence of the sapphire shrimp in the 14 G cube.  I think I might still have a few sapphire shrimp in the volcano tank so I’ll move them over to the 14 G if I can catch them.

[nabokovfan87]

What about.....  There is another version.  That might be a method to keep the fish out and bait them?

[Odd Duck]

On 6/16/2023 at 3:23 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

What about.....  There is another version.  That might be a method to keep the fish out and bait them?

I can’t get those yet, but I spoke to the Sera rep at Dallas Aquashella and he said they will become available sometime in July.  So, soon.  But I don’t know how well they will work for scuds since the spacing on the little tines is wide enough to let scuds back out and these don’t hold water at all so I think they’ll tend to let scuds flow right back out as you lift them.  I still want one for collecting rams for feeding to pea puffers since they tend to collect the smaller ones that are the best size for feeding peas.  I would use it temporarily in my tiny shrimp only tank since I left rams in there a little too long and they laid eggs.  Made more work for myself.  🤷🏻‍♀️ 

[nabokovfan87]

On 6/16/2023 at 4:28 PM, Odd Duck said:

I can’t get those yet

May or may not be able to order from Amazon UK with free shipping.

Here's another, similar concept and a nice test to show how the traps all generally perform.

 

It's one of those things where the timing when you pull it might just be the key.

[Odd Duck]

So far I only see other websites with double the price by the time you pay shipping and 3 weeks or so of shipping.  Rams the right size aren’t that hard to grab for the pea puffers with a Dennerle snail catcher, or to get ahead of, especially in this tiny tank.  I’ll wait until I can get them at a decent price and free shipping on Amazon US.  It will be handy to be able to drop it and walk away and worth having when I do want to use it.