Hyallela azteca

Bradimus · Post by **Bradimus** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 8:00 am

Anyone else keeping this little scuds?

Post by **Mustafa** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 9:32 am

Yes...they have become a pest in one of my shrimp tanks. There are hundreds of them. There are so many that every time I try to introduce a plant into that tank I end up finding a plant skeleton after a several hours and dozens (hundreds) of scuds happily sitting and still gnawing on the skeleton. Hence, I would not recommend keeping them in a planted tank since they do gnaw on plants. To their defense though...they don't usually seem to just take over in most cases. I am still trying to figure out why they reproduced in such high numbers in that particular tank.

I am in the process of removing them one by one(just removed a few hundred). Lots of hard work but absolutely necessary. At this population density they were crawling all over my shrimp and stressing them out.

They are fun little animals and I think they would be great in a small tank of their own or with shrimp that can control their numbers such as Palaemonetes or Macrobrachium.

Bradimus · Post by **Bradimus** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 2:46 pm

Yikes.

Mine decimated some moss, but I have not seen this locust effect with other plants. Maybe my ghosts are keeping them in check?

Post by **Mustafa** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 8:17 pm

Bradimus wrote: Maybe my ghosts are keeping them in check?

Possibly, especially the young H. azteca could be ghost shrimp targets due to their tiny size. Alternatively, you might just not have enough "crud" in your tank for a population explosion. Or it's a combination of both.