or buy Scuds on Amazon (paid link):
They are also known as freshwater side-swimmers because of the way they swim.
Scuds are interesting little aquatic critters that I am curious to learn more about.
They spend most of their time going through detritus.
Which is a great help in keeping aquariums clean.
Here you can see a mating couple of scuds.
Also, scuds often crawl on plants.
I wonder what type of food they prefer.
Let's check it out.
I collect common green algae from the walls of an old aquarium nursery.
Here is a nursery with scuds and some plants.
Let's drop the algae into it.
Adult scuds seem to ignore the algae or, let's say, they don't go after it right away.
A time-lapse recording (top view) reveals that eventually the scuds come and...eat the algae clean.
Although, it took the scuds a couple days to finish all the algae I gave them.
I don't feed them anything else so far.
And yet, the amount of detritus has been growing noticeably.
Apparently, they have been eating something else.
I give them a pinch of homemade fish food flakes hoping to boost algae growth.
12 days later.
Leaves on one of the Elodea cuttings has been eaten clean.
Water seems to have discoloration - indicating algae build up.
Another 5 days have passed.
Most leaves on Elodea and Hornwort cuttings are gone.
Without many plants left, algae has been building up rapidly.
The water is getting more greenish.
Two marimo balls, that are a type of filamentous algae, remain without any noticeable changes.
Scuds seem to prefer plants over algae.
Older scuds seem to prefer sizeable chunks of detritus and plants, while young scuds feed on tiny algae growing on the walls of the aquarium.
Here you can see the youngest scuds on the walls.
Let's give scuds fresh mulberry leaves.
Scuds get busy right away.
3 days later, the soft parts of the mulberry leaves were mostly gone.
And again, it is the adult scuds that prefer to feed on the leaves.
The younger, smaller scuds go after algae on the walls.
Scuds eat only the soft parts of leaves, leaving stems untouched.
Next, I feed scuds with a dry mulberry leaf to see if it can be used for feeding them during the cold Winter season.
Adult scuds eat dry mulberry leaves faster than fresh leaves or aquatic fresh plants and algae available in the aquarium.
The dry leaf was eaten in 3 days compared to about a week for a fresh leaf.
In the following week, I did not feed the scuds.
So, as you can see, scuds ate the leaves of almost all aquatic plants available in the nursery.
Except duckweed.
Duckweed and common green algae have been growing steadily.
Now I am getting ready for another set of experiments with scuds in aquariums with my dwarf guppies.
Will keep you updated ;)
Have fun and happy aquariums :)
Scuds are interesting little aquatic critters that I am curious to learn more about.
They spend most of their time going through detritus.
Which is a great help in keeping aquariums clean.
Here you can see a mating couple of scuds.
Also, scuds often crawl on plants.
I wonder what type of food they prefer.
Let's check it out.
I collect common green algae from the walls of an old aquarium nursery.
Here is a nursery with scuds and some plants.
Let's drop the algae into it.
Adult scuds seem to ignore the algae or, let's say, they don't go after it right away.
A time-lapse recording (top view) reveals that eventually the scuds come and...eat the algae clean.
Although, it took the scuds a couple days to finish all the algae I gave them.
I don't feed them anything else so far.
And yet, the amount of detritus has been growing noticeably.
Apparently, they have been eating something else.
I give them a pinch of homemade fish food flakes hoping to boost algae growth.
12 days later.
Leaves on one of the Elodea cuttings has been eaten clean.
Water seems to have discoloration - indicating algae build up.
Another 5 days have passed.
Most leaves on Elodea and Hornwort cuttings are gone.
Without many plants left, algae has been building up rapidly.
The water is getting more greenish.
Two marimo balls, that are a type of filamentous algae, remain without any noticeable changes.
Scuds seem to prefer plants over algae.
Older scuds seem to prefer sizeable chunks of detritus and plants, while young scuds feed on tiny algae growing on the walls of the aquarium.
Here you can see the youngest scuds on the walls.
Let's give scuds fresh mulberry leaves.
Scuds get busy right away.
3 days later, the soft parts of the mulberry leaves were mostly gone.
And again, it is the adult scuds that prefer to feed on the leaves.
The younger, smaller scuds go after algae on the walls.
Scuds eat only the soft parts of leaves, leaving stems untouched.
Next, I feed scuds with a dry mulberry leaf to see if it can be used for feeding them during the cold Winter season.
Adult scuds eat dry mulberry leaves faster than fresh leaves or aquatic fresh plants and algae available in the aquarium.
The dry leaf was eaten in 3 days compared to about a week for a fresh leaf.
In the following week, I did not feed the scuds.
So, as you can see, scuds ate the leaves of almost all aquatic plants available in the nursery.
Except duckweed.
Duckweed and common green algae have been growing steadily.
Now I am getting ready for another set of experiments with scuds in aquariums with my dwarf guppies.
Will keep you updated ;)
Have fun and happy aquariums :)
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