How to change water in aquariums with Scuds

Recently I've been getting many questions about scuds. 

Thank you all for your comments and questions!

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 Most of your questions I have already answered in previous videos. 

However, there is one persistent question: how do I change water in aquariums with scuds?

 The short answer is - I don't change water in my aquariums. 

Here you can see one of my old aquariums with guppies, cherry shrimp and scuds.

 There are also plants, snails and other critters. 

I did not change the water in this aquarium for a couple years.

 And all looks good as it should. 

There is really no reason for changing water, using pumps or heaters in this aquarium garden. 

You may try keeping a small tank in a similar way before committing to it on a large scale. 

I would not experiment with my winning prize aquarium setup no matter what anyone says.

Neither should you - test it first.

 Meantime, you keep your beautiful large aquarium the way you usually do. 

And you want to change water for...whatever reasons. 

Let's say your fish need special water parameters that you can get only doing weekly water changes.

 Well, with regards to scuds - scuds do fine in any aquarium. 

Whatever water parameters are good for your fish it is also good for scuds. 

Scuds would do fine in any water with plants or just common green algae growing. 

I did experiments keeping scuds in these green algae rich tanks without anything else. 

Scuds keep breeding in completely green water :) 

And scuds feed on common green algae if nothing else is available.

 That is one of the reasons you don't need to change water for scuds. 

The size of scuds is another matter that is not in favor of water changes. 

It takes about a year for scuds to grow up to about 1 cm long. 

Here you can see a couple of less than 5 months old scuds. 

At this age scuds are less than 5 mm long.

 It could be hard to save this size scuds while doing water changes. 

Now, look on the surface of the white rock and you may notice tiny speckle sized dots moving around. Those are newborn baby scuds!

 Scuds, as many other scavengers, like to dig in the dirt at the bottom of the tank.

Most of your scuds would get lost with the dirty water that you dispose of. 

You better move as many scuds as you can to another tank before changing water in the aquarium.

 I use small containers for transferring scuds.

 Here I fill half of the container with dechlorinated aged tap water.

 Now let's drop a piece of any floating food for scuds to gather on.

It has to be floating food!

 My scuds like cereal and dry mulberry leaves.

 Use a fish net with fine mesh to scoop the flake with all the scuds gathered on it into the container.

There are enough scuds on one flake to start a couple new colonies :) 

This way you can transfer as many scuds as you need from an aquarium without fish! 

Fish would eat the food and scuds as well. 

In aquariums with fish scuds hide in the gravel and on the plants. 

Pull out the plants from the aquarium in one gentle motion. 

And rinse the plants in the container. 

You may want to leave the plant in the container as it could be hard to rinse all the scuds off the plant.

 Scuds hold on the plants very tight when they are scared or hungry. 

Let me shake the plant well and give you the close up view of it. 

Here you can see a crowd of scuds holding up together. 

Use a soft brush to move them from the plant. 

I am just going to rinse the plant in the container. 

One way or another, I transferred enough scuds in this container to set up a couple cultures. 

Repeat and transfer as many scuds as you can before changing water in the main tank.

 It takes longer to transfer scuds from aquariums with fish.

 Consider taking fish out of the tank - scuds would come out of hiding. 

Then you can remove the scuds and change the water in the aquarium. 

And you can set up a couple nurseries for culturing scuds next to your main aquarium with fish. 

This way you can change water in the main aquarium anytime without worry about scuds population.

 You could always add some scuds from the nurseries to the main aquarium. 

That is the best way to go about changing water and providing live scuds to your fish. 

You don't need to change water in nurseries with scuds.

 And it's easier to set up a new nursery for scuds if it ever comes to it.

 Have fun and happy scuds :)