A 47 minute video about scuds? YES, please! I also keep them in all of my tanks, and also maintain a separate fishless culture with other live foods. All of your experiences with scuds mirror my own. Great job.
Glad to hear it and thank you so much for the kind words... I keep saying I'll be able to get caught and put out more content! As always, more to come! Thanks for watching!
😁😁😁 I really appreciate that! Working on a couple of really big projects at the moment but the plan is to make more long form content like that video. Thanks for watching!
This is a fantastic and informative video. I quit the hobby thirty years ago but started a natural tank three months ago and am loving the difference 👍
@lynx2cross well, see the link in the description, you can buy scuds from his shop. I for myself descided against them, because I have a planted aquarium with shrimp and snails, and a) I really don't want anything eating live plants and b) I don't want anything outcompete the shrimp.
Same story here. My hobby that I tought I hated came back to life. Under 3 months I have gone from never ever again to two 30gal one 20 gal and two 1 gal and one 5 gal tanks ... oh me 😂
I have never been so interested in hearing about scuds, your voice and the way you explain it is so therapeutic and inspirational at the same time, so informative and the music and visuals with it is perfect.
Absolutely amazing sense of how things work in nature. Hope this way of thinking will soon spread not only to aquarists, but also to agriculture and forestry 🕊
First time I saw a scud in my tank, I thought it was a parasite and was ready to go nuclear to have them removed. But, knowing more about this organisms today, I look forward to having more of them in my tanks.
I'd watch more of these long form videos. Got back into the hobby a few months ago with the Father Fish method and I'm loving it more than last time. Ten gallon full of plants and fish with snails and scuds.
Why is this so relaxing to listen to? 😅 I’m lying in bed with my eyes closed soaking up your voice and information. I’m new to the aquarium hobby and found a scud with a plant I purchased. I was terrified at first but now I’m happy to place him in his new home for however long he may last. ❤
Great video, people don't always appreciate some aspects of building an ecosystem and Asellus Aquaticus are a part of that in the same way that snails and shrimp complement each other. They're more resilient than most aquatic creatures, can withstand even brackish water, low oxygen, vast Ph and temperature ranges though they prefer it lower, and even water quality where Ammonia is present. They go great in planted tanks and are really like a lesser known Amano shrimp in their effectiveness.
I'll have to do some more culturing with them! I have a very small population in one of my experimental jars at home. I get so busy I've forgotten about these guys. You've given me some great inspiration. Thanks!
This was an honest and very interesting informative video about scuds, it's videos like this that keep my sense of wonder alive, thank you for such an interesting video.
I love my scuds! I have them in my shrimp tanks. Pretty big population in with my blue dreams. I've been watching them closely and so far they haven't touched the plants. I pull some out every week for my rams. I think they are adorable little creatures.
Thank you so much for sharing your experience! It's incredible how well they can survive in adverse situations. No wonder they have made their way around the planet and into an our aquariums. 😁😁😁
Excellent stuff, creating natural environments like this are what makes an ecosystem in a glass box sustain itself forever. Subbed for being a true to nature channel.
Your videos are so informative!!!I always seed new tanks with snails, scuds, seed shrimp, or blackworms before I add fish. This gives them a chance to get established
I love this stuff man, i found scuds in my outdoor tanks recently and freaked out. seeing your content helps a lot, I've now embraced scuds' and feed a bit less in all my tanks.
Crazy, i just also spotted my first shrimp offspring in the middle of watching this video. The tank has a huge scud family and my plants, shrimp and otos seems to live well even with minnimal feeding.
Even if someone didn't have an aquarium or keep fish this is a fantastic video. Its also got an excellent, chill, relaxing vibe with a narrator who sounds kinda like Chris Pratt.
Great video, so informative and pleasant to listen to. Got myself a small aquascape of about 5 gallon, where I keep scuds and some snails. Really industrious and funny creatures, I absolutely love it. I don't feed all that much, so I occasionally see them munch on some of the more tender plants like duckweed, but those grow much faster than the scuds can eat them.
First time i saw these guys in my tank (they hitchhiked from a plant i bought) i panicked like hell! So worried about my shrimps and betta. Now theyre welcome in my tank, i do hope they don't go crazy on my plants though. I used to pick them out one by one but that was so tedious. Theyre welcome to stay now, main thing is they're safe.
its crazy right? I see so many people freaking out on fb groups about foreign things (to them) in their tanks, they want nothing in there but fish. The hobby has been groomed by manufactures. Its so sterile.
Awesome video! Have you ever considered releasing longer videos like this as podcasts? I'd love to be able to say listen to this as I go to sleep and pick out new details each time!
same here! I just let this video run on my tv and sit back and listen. So a Podcast on say Spotify would be great too. However I do prefer the voice over while watching a tank, its relaxing at the same time.
@ColorzGuppyFarm We are in the process of putting that together... Definitely want to do more long form talks.... The podcast will be co-hosted by my wife and will be a good way for us to keep everyone updated with what's going on with Phillips Fish Works... There's so much going on that no one ever hears about. Some kind of weekly update would be helpful on top of regular videos. Thanks for watching and keep your eye out. We are just getting started!
Had I seen this video and your page a week ago, I would have ordered the bag of bugs instead of just a scud culture. This is awesome and I will be ordering soon. Both of my aquariums are fully planted, natural setups. The scuds are thriving in my 10 gallon. I can't wait for one of the kids to have a life science project to do, I'm going to setup a bag of bugs in a 5 gallon tank I have with maybe a couple of neon tetras.
Thank you so much for your support! By the end of November we are going to launch a whole bunch of new products on the website, including a gallon jar ecosystem kit. Have fun with the experimenting!
Have watched & listened followed your progress since the beginning along with all the negative comments 😡but you’ve stayed positive & informative & have developed your own platform as does father fish/ practical & informative well worth any new hobbyist watching 😎👍
Thanks! I really appreciate your support! Yeah, I'm not surprised by the negative comments. There are a lot of people out there with strong opinions and closed minds. But it takes us all to have a diverse, interesting hobby... I try to help anywhere I can especially if a customer has an issue. I do everything I can to fix it. The reality is some people don't want things fixed. They need a reason to fight and be mad. And again that's okay with me. I'm not here to judge anyone... I'm here to share my experience in the hopes it will help someone else improve their experience... I have way too many "good" things going on in my life to worry about negative comments. I do really appreciate you watching 😁😁😁 There is so much more to come and so much more going on that never makes it to RU-vid.
@@phillipsfishworks I’ve had a 100g small fish community tank going on 45 yrs enjoyed the diversity well planted willing to try any idea that floats my boat always fun like yourself & father fish algae, snails, critters, shrimps all the fun stuff never grows old always something happening never got caught up in the must have the newest bit off kit slow & easy changes time to adjust has worked fine for yrs keep up the good work much appreciated your endless willingness to share & promote the Hobby😎👍
When they introduced wolves in Yellowstone it had a profound change of bringing back a diverse habitat. You go there now and the place is thriving. This is the same thing. New subscriber. ❤
WAW...IT WAS VERY EXCITING TO HEAR YOU EXPLAINING ABOUT SCUDS ECOSISTEM :) YOUR EXPLANATION IS THE LONGEST AND THE MOST EXPLANATORY I HEARD FROM PROBABLY 20 OR 30 VIDEOS ABOUT SCUDS ! GREAT EXPLANATION VIDEO :) I DID A THUMB-UP ABOUT THE VIDEO AND SUBSCRIBED TO THE CHANNEL :) THANK YOU FOR YOU EFFORT :) THANK YOU FOR SHARING :) THANK YOU FROM ISRAEL :)
the scud eating the shrimp at 38:57 right as he is talking about how scuds won't eat your shrimp 🤣 great video tho, definitely will be experimenting with scuds now
Thank you for making this hobby even more interesting and certainly more graspable and doable. I, too, end up watching scuds and those little tiny microfauna with great interest. I definitely don't cringe as before 😅
Scuds are doing a geat job indeed, even better than shrimps. All algae in my tank has gone within days. My aquarium looks so clear and clean with this cleaning crew. Thanks for sharing this video.😊
I have been on the fence about adding scuds to my planted aquarium for quite a while. I really love the idea of having a cleanup crew. My tank has some snails as well as some shrimp to help tidy up after the community fish. I always viewed scuds as a clean up crew member, just smaller. But you read so many posts about them being a bad addition to planted tanks it makes you cautious. I have placed an order and I hope to come back a post my experience so that people can make the best decision for their own aquarium.
@@phillipsfishworks Well I plan on adding the order to a 10 gallon tank that only has plants. I hope to populate my 30 gallon tank that has some white cloud minnows and red tailed raspboras. And a pair of amano shrimp.
I have to say I really appreciate this video because you touch on a point that I have been thinking about and applying to my tanks, that being the ecosystem within the aquarium. Having those various microfauna in a tank to “chew the food” is a boon to any aquarium and I wish we saw creatures like scuds and bladder snails as helpers rather than pests.
Just found your channel through LRB aquatics and purchased one of these Scud Balls packs. I used to be around those little spiked seeds but have since moved, excited for them to come in! Thank you for providing long form, in depth videos on these little creatures. Nothing helps me understand more about something than videos like this, it'll greatly help my ability to keep these active and flourishing.
I put one of my scud balls in a little 1 gallon that I use to keep plant trimmings. I watch the scuds almost as much as I watch the fish in my other tanks.
I have Tony’s scuds and shrimp and snails in all my natural tanks. I love watching my scuds. Them little devils ain’t scared of any of my tetras. Swim right past like catch me if you can attitude 🤣 I’m having explosion of shrimp in one tank with scuds and ember tetra. Actually have had ember babies appear from the jungle of plants!! So exciting and the scuds or parents neither ate them. I have a 10 gallon scuds only and they are multiplying like crazy! I give a thin slice of zucchini and tiny bit of fish food about once every two weeks. I found my scuds also love floating plants to hide in, maybe getting the fish food that gets trapped in the floating plants? I’m getting ready to order more scuds and shrimp from Tony. PS my scuds and shrimp love each other and I don’t notice either outdoing each other!
Awesome! Thank you. Your comment made me decide to buy his "bag of bugs" for my 20 gallon blue dream/ember tank. I've had trouble getting anyone to breed so far and this confirmed what I was looking for 😂
Hey Beth, all my tanks are dirted and sand capped, like “Father Fish “ concept and planted to death, river rock and woods. I actually use a 1/3 of my NC river water and 2/3 my well water. Tony’s scud balls and leaves. Tannins in water, South American environment. I only top off with the well water and I just trust in myself and the plants to keep my babies happy, I discovered those baby embers when I was removing a ton of hornwort. I use the hygger sponge filters so all baby life stays safe. The scuds love sponge too and the baby shrimp stay on them. Tony’s shrimp have babies like crazy! I’ve Decided that red root floaters (the only ones I can keep under control) also makes a great place for the scuds and fish to hide and feed in. I also grow Tony’s white worms to feed as a treat. I only feed maybe 3 times a week. Happy fishing!
I just cleaned my shrimp tank and dumped around 100 Ramshorns and 1000 Scuds into my pond. Thought I got most of them, but every morning when I click the light on it looks like Futurama traffic with all the different sized scuds swimming all over with the shrimp. They got real comfortable when I took the mosquito fish out cause I saw a shrimp with eggs.
I love to hear you “blab on forever”. ❤ I have really nerded out over scuds, daphnia, and all the critters. I go to my local pond, but I have not found any scuds yet, with all my sifting and netting and water hauling. Arrggg! But so much fun, and gratifying to be able to disconnect from the “real” world and focus on the minutiae of the microscopic.
You gotta just grab a big handful of mucky leaves from the bottom of a body of water. I even got all of mine from a tiny stream in the woods, so any pond will have even more. But they’re FAST, you gotta have your jar right there to plop the mucky leaves in bc they’ll try to escape. I’ve never found any by grabbing a jar of water, but if i put a few inches of water in the jar and then cram as much decomposing muck/mud/leaves as I can fit, and let it settle until the water is easy to see into, you’ll find plenty
Brilliant video, very well explained. I never thought about it in terms of spoiling my view of natural behaviour by teaching them how to beg instead. I look foward to seeing my future fish hunting their own food 😊
I've been planning a bioactive 75 community tank. I've been interested in establishing a population of little critters such as copepods to really enhance this ecosystem I have in mind. Maybe scuds would be a great addition to my plan!
Hey, thanks for taking your time with this talk and for the beautiful visuals of your ecosystems. Inspires me to do more with mine. I resonate very much with all that you've said here; your understanding of ecology is on pro level. Subscribed and looking forward to more in depth long form deep dives like this..
Nice video thank you for that!. Here's a short story. I grew up seeing scuds all the time at the sea and in the fresh water ponds. When I was a little kid I loved scuds so much that I went to the pond near my house then I put some in a jar then Iater I put them in my bath water...and yes I learned they will die if it's too hot and no it is not a toy lol
Great video I was concerned about getting scuds but you have made it clear enough for me to feel comfortable with the idea of introducing them into my tank.
I got a starter culture of gammarus sp. A minth ago and i have become obsessed with the little fellas! I love microfauna in general but these guys have hit the top of my list! I originally got them to feed my guppies im breeding, but they havent eaten a single one 😂😂 not until i have an ARMY!
I've never raised Sea Monkeys (brine shrimp), but I have a feeling, scuds are infinitely simpler and infinitely easier. Best of all, scuds are free locally.
I think most of the horror stories about scuds come from wholesalers who try to raise scud monocultures for profit. I recently tried this, and well, for the first time in my life I lost a jar full of stem plants to hungry scuds. When I keep scuds under predation in a community tank with a variety of species, I don't have these problems. I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that the horror stories we here about other creatures besides scuds, including planaria, snail leeches, and hydra being "bad" for shrimp aquariums also come from wholesalers who try to raise shrimp monocultures for profit. There is a reason why monocultures have problems like this. If you aren't raising any sort of wholesale-style monoculture, then you don't need to worry about small opportunistic predators. In a natural and balanced ecosystem, these creatures help to make long-term sustainability possible. I have a 75 gallon tank that I set up to emulate a natural pond. I started off with a dozen CPDs and 2 dozen neocardinia and a whole bunch of plants. In a little over a years time, the neocardinia population has nearly tripled under predation from CPDs, scuds, planaria, and snail leeches. I never feed the tank. It feeds itself. The plants are a bit stringy, and there is green spot algae everywhere, so it ain't pretty to look at, but the system maintains itself, and has for over a year. I guess the big takeaway here is that diversity is strength,
I love that you talk about spiritual things, but people think you are talking about microfauna. You are smart, a magician, trying to save people when you are not allowed to. ❤❤❤❤❤❤
I was just looking up natural planted aquariums because I was curious how soil respiration and turnover could be achieved in the aquarium, and I realized that most aquariums are sterile compared to ponds and lakes in terms of biodiversity so I figured there needed to be more decomposers for this to occur in aquariums and this idea rabbit hole led me to your website selling microfauna, and now here. I'm definitely curious to the benefits these creatures might provide in a more natural planted aquarium setting (deep largely inorganic substrate with a organic top layer, and additional sporadic organics added).
I love your videos! I just purchased my second order from you, it came in the mail today. I’m sure I’ll be back soon for a third purchase. Thanks so much! -Sal
This is the best video I've found on this topic! I'm planning on adding scuds and daphnia to my aquariums. I'm having to order everything online since I live on a remote island in Southeast Alaska and there's no LFS here.
That was really interesting, I had only heard the name 'scuds' a week or so ago. I learned a lot and you explained it perfectly, even I understand all the benefits and pitfalls now 😂 I'm in the UK and been around fish keeping all my life but this has passed me by Thank you so much 😊
Technically, meiofauna are animals that pass through a 1mm mesh screen but not through a 0.1mm mesh screen. Many of them are interstitial, living between grains of sand in the substrate.
Nice video that made me feel a lot better about my situation. I somehow got scuds and multiple species “pest” snails. After reading online I began to worry a bit. I have loads of plants, shrimp, 30 rasbora hengeli, and 3 scarlet badis. So I’m hoping my fish will keep them in check along with competition from the shrimp. I only see them occasionally in the hair grass carpet so far. I feed lightly once to twice a day. I may go down to only once a day or every other day. I have noticed the once skiddish fish aren’t really afraid of me anymore and actually come out to wherever I’m working on the aquarium so maybe I’m feeding too much.
From my recent experience: you don’t want to have a small planted tank with scuds and no fish. The scuds (I had gotten them by accident with a batch of plants, species unknown) multiplied like crazy with no predators, and ate anything and everything that might’ve eaten greenwater algae (daphnia, etc.). I was not adding food., and the bowl didn’t have a light. I may have thrown in a couple of pieces of vegetables at the beginning. Their waste stayed on top of my sand substrate and fed the algae. This was a 2 gallon Walstad method bowl, with, I should mention, very deep substrate, 4-5 inches. In another bowl of similar size, I added a betta. The water is still green, so I’m stepping up vacuuming frequency and cutting down on hours of light. The plants all disappeared except the tough emmersive bamboo and papyrus in the first bowl. This is covered in this video, thanks, wish I had seen it sooner. Still learning. Someone needs to start breeding scuds for colour, like shrimps. They’re incredibly hearty.
