If you have no such streams in your area, I did turn up at least one place where you can buy live gammarus in something resembling bulk (although, I’d like to note that I’ve never had any dealings with these people, so I have no idea how good they are):

http://www.buylivefishfood.com/buy_live_scud_cultures.html

They do like to have rocks and other structure to hide under, so if your pond doesn’t have such structure already, you might want to add some. Otherwise, I’m afraid your trout and bass will devour them instantly before they can establish a long-term population.

Thanks,

Jim Crawford
flyfsh2@centurytel.net

Thanks for the blog!
I have to say that seawater amphipods Gammarus setosus really looks like this ones, and that feeding behaviour is pretty the same. They even eat freswater worms.

I have a question, maybe if someone know better than me: What would the freshwater amphipod Pallaseopsis quadrispinosa eat in normal conditions? I am feeding them now with tetramin but I would like to know if they would eat algae or other smaller organisms! Particularly, a smaller organisms would be great to know.
thanks

Just out of curiosity, I put about a 1/4 inch of this pond mud in a 6oz.jar of pond water, sealed it, and put it next to the first batch of amphipods. In a few days, plants started emerging, and a few days later, so did amphipods. This jar has remained sealed since July. The only input has been indirect sunlight. It still has a small population of amphipods. The water is crystal clear. Biosphere 4.

There are large amounts of daphnia, scuds, isopods, hydra, insect larvae, snails, mites and all sorts of other things that I’ve found in the tank now. I wonder how succesfully the amphipods will survive in the tank as it is? I’m considering moving some of the scuds to another container for cultivation… or maybe turning this 10 gallon into a tank for them.

I really enjoyed this article you wrote. You have a very nice website and I am about to browse the rest of it.

Roland

Back on topic, whenever I siphon off the water from my aquarium, I just let it sit in its bucket for about 10 minutes. I pour out the mostly clear stuff on top, and the detritus on bottom (fish and snail poop, decaying plants) goes into various containers I have around the house which house the gammarus shrimp. Most of them are clear plastic containers to make easier collection/observation, but also to give some photosynthesis to whatever algae are in the water (backup food for the shrimp). I also have float duckweed (skimmed off from my aquariums) in these containers as an additional source of backup food. Using this method, I’ve never had to actually feed the shrimp. They are all indoors, but next to a west facing window. The only time I experienced a die-off was when I put some in a used plastic water bottle, but capped it for a few days. The lack of oxygen sufficated them all. But generally, they’re relatively hardy creatures, tolerating even a hot summer afternoon sun.

Actually, now that I think about it, I had always ordered shrimp when the weather was a bit cooler. It’ll be in the 80s here this week. I don’t think I want to subject the little guys to an unnecessary death. I guess I’ll keep searching streams and lakes. Thank you though.

I also forgot to mention earlier that I really love the site.