Growing Scuds

      I purchased some scuds, probably Hyalella azteca, from John Clairmont a couple of years ago.  They went into a ten gallon tank on a bottom row, and were mostly forgotten. Sometime later, when a tank was needed for a purchase of Red Cherry shrimp, I saw no reason to continue wasting a tank on the scuds, so in went the shrimp. They have been coexisting quite well, with increasing populations of both invertebrates. And the tank is pleasingly clean versus my other tanks. Having read that scuds eat both hair algae and black beard algae, I added ten each to two quart containers with black algae problems.

      Probably 15 smaller scuds were added to this 15 gallon that contains a trio of Red Cherry shrimp. The hair algae is thick on the left side of this tank. Obviously the cherry shrimp don't eat it. It will be nice if the scuds clean it up.

Scuds added 12/25/15

Electric Blue Crayfish Growing

      Back on September 30th I wrote a post about my mother crayfish releasing her babies. You can see her in this shot above taken this morning.  Over a few days time, I had removed a total of 270 baby crays from this 30 gallon breeding tank, and spread them around to various tanks and "holding containers".  The few babies left in the tank with the mother, have turned out to be at least 30 more!  Yikes.  From the original 300, I expect I easily have 120 or more still alive.

      The larger crayfish near the top is the mother of the 300 baby spawn.  Two of the babies in this picture are about half her size at only three months.  Although the original male died, I will certainly have no problem in procuring breeding stock.

Procambarus alleni

Red Cherry Shrimp Progress

      The Red Cherry Shrimp are making progress.  The original group in the ten gallon tank in the back seems to be expanding slowly, and there is currently a good sized berried female. The three shrimp in the 15 gallon tank in back are growing, with at least one female with an egg saddle. The best progress is in the 2 1/2 gallon tank that I moved to front and center in the front room. There are six or seven shrimp in that tank, with one female berried and one in saddle (non-fertilized eggs behind head).

      In the shot above, the female with the egg saddle on her back is in the forefront. The berried female is behind her and is facing the camera.

      In this shot you can see the berried eggs that the top female is carrying under her belly. I am going to leave the berried female in the tank through release of the developed babies. The literature suggests that the babies will be fine. The egg saddle is also quite apparent in the second female.

     12/27/15 Starting to see babies in the 2 1/2 gallon tank.  Ten babies counted on 12/28/15.

     1/7/16  Netted out two berried females from the 2 1/2 gallon tank to the 10 gallon tank with annulatus next to it.  Two of the four females in the 2.5 have released their babies, and I have had a count of at least 30 babies.  That seemed like enough, hence the net and move.  Also a male left in the 2.5.