[VW_TDI_02]

I don't really know what to do. I have gammarus scuds in my shrimp tank and they are starting to cause problems. They are leaving my RCS alone for now but they are just destroying my duckweed roots. Along the bottom of my tank I am starting to see the roots just lying there where they munched right through it. I tried adding a rosy barb into the tank for about 15 minutes but instead of going after the scuds, it was just gorging itself on the duckweed and leaving the scuds alone so I took her out. I currently have two berried females that have about 3 weeks before the eggs hatch and I was wondering if there was anything I could do. So far I've heard of removing all the shrimp and "gassing" it with CO2 but I'm not really sure if that will be enough. Also, would that kill my biological filter? I am using a sponge filter and the up-tube is crawling with them. I'm worried that they are going to become carnivorous and attack the newly hatched or even some of the newly molted RCS shrimp. Also, the only CO2 that I have is DIY that I use in my other tank so I'm not sure if that would be able to produce the necessary results. The other option I can think of would be excel. Would a massive dose of excel be sufficient to kill any scuds in the tank?

 

[jay6896]

I'm interested in the answers you get. I bought shrimp via Ebay and I am sure this is what I saw in my tank when I released them. There was only 1 of them. Are they bad?

 

[VW_TDI_02]

There are thousands in my tank at this point. I have a full layer of duckweed and I can just see a bunch of little things crawling/swimming in the roots. I have pretty high light so the roots are about 2 1/2" long and I can see a bunch of them along the bottom where the scuds have been eating at the duckweed. My blood stargrass, dwarf sag, ambulia, and subwassertang are all doing fine. I think the easiest thing to tell is with the duckweed and it is probably their favorite. If they stay on the duckweed then I'm fine, I'm just worried about the newly hatched shrimp.

 

[houbanna]

I read this in a previous posted scud problem. From what I gathered u could put a bottle of soda water into the tank and it would raise the co2 levels astronomically killing snails scuds, and other life except plants. I believe they said a 2 litre bottle. U would have to move the shrimp To do this. Never tried but others chimed in as a working solution. Not sure of the impact on a cycled tank but its the only methods I've heard of as a 100% effective.

 

[Whiskey]

I tried a MASSIVE excel overdose without luck, eventually I poured bleach in the tank, and even that took an hour to kill them. After that I threw away the substrate, and rinsed everything else really well. Some plants didn't make it through the bleaching, but most did, the ones that held together were rinsed and declorinated.

I then cycled the tank like it was brand new. Huge pain, I hope you find an easier way.

Whiskey

 

[VW_TDI_02]

I read this in a previous posted scud problem. From what I gathered u could put a bottle of soda water into the tank and it would raise the co2 levels astronomically killing snails scuds, and other life except plants. I believe they said a 2 litre bottle. U would have to move the shrimp To do this. Never tried but others chimed in as a working solution. Not sure of the impact on a cycled tank but its the only methods I've heard of as a 100% effective.

Hmmm, that would work pretty easily. Cut a hole in the lid, insert air line tubing with a check valve and an air stone and have at it. How would I know when I'm done? I only have the API Master Test Kit so it won't measure really low pH. Right now my plan is to pull out all the duckweed, catch the shrimp, return the duckweed, and then start adding CO2. Continue to shake the bottle until it goes flat. After that, repeat with the second 2 liter 15 minutes later. By the end I'm thinking anything in there will be dead and I'll be seeing a pile of dead scuds along the bottom. Then use an air line siphon to get some of them out in order to prevent an ammonia spike.

I tried a MASSIVE excel overdose without luck, eventually I poured bleach in the tank, and even that took an hour to kill them. After that I threw away the substrate, and rinsed everything else really well. Some plants didn't make it through the bleaching, but most did, the ones that held together were rinsed and declorinated.

I then cycled the tank like it was brand new. Huge pain, I hope you find an easier way.

Whiskey

I would much rather not do that. Like I said earlier, it is a dirted tank so that would mean redoing everything from scratch. My plants are just now really growing in well and I honestly just want to have a nice tank as opposed to one that I'm waiting to grow in.

 

[garfieldnfish]

I have the same problem. I manually removed as many as I could, well over 500. I took all the tangerine tiger shrimp out of the tank and added CPDs, micro rasboras and black darter tetras. If they can't take care of the rest, I plan on using copper based meds to kill the rest of them. But I do not plan on adding the tiger shrimp back to the tank as they now have a new home. The tank where I took the fish from is now empty. It also has scuds in it as they were added for food and a few always managed to escape. I took everything out yesterday, drained the water and found many more scuds in the substrate. I will add a 2 liter bottle of soda today. How long does that have to be in there before I can drain the tank again and refill for shrimp to be added? Also what size tank is the 2 liter bottle supposed to be for? I would imagine a large tank needing more soda than a little one.

 

[VW_TDI_02]

I have the same problem. I manually removed as many as I could, well over 500. I took all the tangerine tiger shrimp out of the tank and added CPDs, micro rasboras and black darter tetras. If they can't take care of the rest, I plan on using copper based meds to kill the rest of them. But I do not plan on adding the tiger shrimp back to the tank as they now have a new home. The tank where I took the fish from is now empty. It also has scuds in it as they were added for food and a few always managed to escape. I took everything out yesterday, drained the water and found many more scuds in the substrate. I will add a 2 liter bottle of soda today. How long does that have to be in there before I can drain the tank again and refill for shrimp to be added? Also what size tank is the 2 liter bottle supposed to be for? I would imagine a large tank needing more soda than a little one.

Not sure so I'm just going to be winging it. For my ten gallon I'm going to use a two liter first and then wait 15 minutes after it goes flat. If I can still see them swimming I'll hit them with the second bottle. I'm thinking about adding some fish to my tank which I would rather not do.

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[jay6896]

I haven't seen mine in about a week. This morning he is scavenging and I sucked him out with my siphon. I think I am scud free. Hope you find your solution soon.

 

[houbanna]

Using excel is different than using soda water or actual co2. The idea is to make ur tank carbonated water. Like I said I've only read it. I did find it when googling as well. I personally will be trying this soon, don't believe any harm will be done to plants because it is co2 saturated water and plants don't seem to be bothered by higher levels I've had. U could do this with ur co2 setup but it would waste money. Think about how much co2 u would have to dump to get ur water to fizz like Canada Dry. I believe only an hour or two should do it from what I remember. And again I've only read it, so refer to my signature below

 

[VW_TDI_02]

Using excel is different than using soda water or actual co2. The idea is to make ur tank carbonated water. Like I said I've only read it. I did find it when googling as well. I personally will be trying this soon, don't believe any harm will be done to plants because it is co2 saturated water and plants don't seem to be bothered by higher levels I've had. U could do this with ur co2 setup but it would waste money. Think about how much co2 u would have to dump to get ur water to fizz like Canada Dry. I believe only an hour or two should do it from what I remember. And again I've only read it, so refer to my signature below

I think it isn't just the high levels of CO2 but also the pH. Injecting a lot of CO2 into the tank, especially all at once, would cause a very fast pH swing. I think a combination of both would do the trick. I do have a slight problem now. This morning i found a very young shrimp. So far I saw it this morning and was watching it for a bit but I haven't seen it since and I haven't seen any other shrimp that small/young. It was only about 1/4" long so it was definitely a young one. I didn't know I had a female with eggs that were hatching now so I'm not really sure where this guy came from. He's definitely at least half the size of any other shrimp in the tank so that's why I think he is from a new spawn. Hopefully in the next few days I will be seeing more and more young ones. At this point I'm not really sure what I want to do. The scuds haven't been causing any problems aside from the duckweed roots so it may not be worth the hassle just yet. I will be moving the tank in about a month so I think I might do it right after I take out the shrimp for transport. Once the shrimp are out of the tank then I'll do the same procedure, drain the tank, and get it all packed up to go.

 

[garfieldnfish]

I have tried it with 3 small seltzer soda bottles yesterday and it did nothing to the scuds. Maybe I did not use enough but I drained most of the water out of the tank and added 3 small bottles of soda. The scuds were not affected at all.

But my fish in the 30 gal breeder tank are having a ball hunting down the scuds.

ADD-ON I just open another soda bottle from the same 6 pack to drink myself. They had been in my basement since last year. We don't drink it that much and I noticed the bottle was flat. I opened the other 2 with the same result. So the three I added to the fish tank were no different and lacked the one thing they needed to kill the scuds.

 

[VW_TDI_02]

I have tried it with 3 small seltzer soda bottles yesterday and it did nothing to the scuds. Maybe I did not use enough but I drained most of the water out of the tank and added 3 small bottles of soda. The scuds were not affected at all.

But my fish in the 30 gal breeder tank are having a ball hunting down the scuds.

ADD-ON I just open another soda bottle from the same 6 pack to drink myself. They had been in my basement since last year. We don't drink it that much and I noticed the bottle was flat. I opened the other 2 with the same result. So the three I added to the fish tank were no different and lacked the one thing they needed to kill the scuds.

Haha. Sorry but I had to laugh a bit. Are you going to try this again with fresh seltzer water ?

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[OrangeAugust]

I saw the subject and I was like, "Aww! Scuds!" Because I had one once in my betta tank and it was so cute and funny to watch. I think my betta ate it after a few days, though. I had no idea they could be so destructive until I read this thread!

 

[VW_TDI_02]

Not really sure why or how but I'm not seeing as many today. Last night I trimmed the blood stargrass about 4" and cut some that was getting where it shouldn't. Before I did that I scooped up all the duckweed into a cup. I'm not sure if all that disturbance scared them into the substrate but there aren't anywhere near as many as I usually see. I doubt this will be permanent but I guess it is better than nothing. I don't see any dead scuds or shrimp so I don't think it is the water quality either.

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[lemonnoodle]

Scuds are invincible. I boiled my substrate and microwaved it. Let it dry but it was still moist in the middle and bottom of the bucket. I put the substrate in my new clean uninfested tank. Scuds reappearred.