Please check the 10 day weather forecast in your location before placing your order. If the temperature on the high side might be over 80F or the low side might be under 32F, please do not order. If you ignore this important warning message, you will probably wasting your time or money due to cancellation of your order. You may try if you are available and willing to pick up in your local post office. You may also purchase the 120 hrs heat pad as needed(not for sale separately)
For sale are 3, or 10 breeding pair(s) or multiple selection quantity of 20, 50, 100 or 500 unsexed "Live Food - Freshwater Scuds and/or durable dropper ". The photos you see in the webpage were enlarged and not to scale. Please don't expect they are very large. Their actual body lengths are only about 1/16" to less than 1/4".
If you purchase large and enough quantity of scuds, you might creat a clean up crew like the last picture shown to help you do the routine cleaning job with little effort.
I will randomly pick the quantity you selected regardless of size.
If you want to count or feed your fish easily, I suggest you purchasing a durable dropper in the "option" and cut to the desired length on receiving (no dropper only). If you choose to buy the durable dropper only, I will cancel your order.
Please keep in mind scuds can swim extremely fast and hard to be caught or follow with your naked eye which might lead to miscount by just visual estimation(see the last picture) by most of the customers.
I spent time to count every order I mailed. If you do not count, visual estimate the quantity and left a negative feedback, you will be disappointed. Not just your reputation to the public but the future purchase from me.
In Case of DOA(dead on arrived), please take pictures for reference and contact me through message, I will respond ASAP(even after three months of transaction in rare case). If you create a case, ebay will usually process a refund for you without my consent but you will probably be rejected from my future transactions.
Useful information:
The body color of scuds maybe different in different environment.
I see that male is usually lighter in color (picture 6) and bigger in size.
These live food are easy to keep and breed.
They are classified as omnivorous. That means they will eat almost any organic matters you give them. But they will not attack even a small guppy fry in a small plastic box. So we could also say they are peaceful scavenger.
Recently, I found hornworts is one of the aquatic plants they most prefer for hiding, and as food.
Duckweeds and mullberry leaves are also their favorite snacks (picture 4). Instead of catching by the bladderwort I sell in my other listing, they will eat them all in just a few minutes.
They also like to lie down and resting on the frogbit as shown in the third picture.To keep them alive, active and well, no special requirements was found.
They can even survive and breed in a one ounce plastic container with light on top.
I also found that they are cold tolerant but their abilities to withstand how low a temperature was unknown.
They are still alive under ice in the water containers of my backyard even in the record low temperature of 12F in Texas on Feb 15, 2021.
As for their high temperature tolerance, I tested today(Jun 18, 2022) at around 12:00pm and found that 103F in water with gravel and rotten leaves are still okay to them.
Q&A
Q: Quick question. If I choose to get 1 breeding pair, how are you able to sex them to know you are sending a male and female?
A: You may find that breeding pairs always with the male on top as shown in the picture. I will pick those for you by dropper in one simple action. I won't manually separate them but they may keep away from each other somehow. So you are sure to get one male and one female and maybe a few newborn babies after a few days of settlement.
Q: The package was frozen and the scuds were dead. I would prefer a full refund. Do I need to send back?
A: Sorry, full refund only available for unshipped items. Shipping cost would be deducted if you want a refund. Please send clear photo to show the inactive scuds on paper towel. No need to send back. I can resend at no cost to you. Please understand and let me know your decision.
Q: Hi. I was wondering how you ship your Gammarus Scuds so that they are still alive when they arrive?
A: Thank you for your interest in my listing. There is no secret in shipping scuds alive since they are almost the most adaptive organisms in the world. They can eat almost any food or organic matter. They can survive under record low temperature outside in Texas. They don't require much oxygen. So just avoid lethal chemicals, mechanical damage and heat would be okay for them to travel long distance, I think.
Q: I just got my scud culture and there are nowhere near 50 in here, maybe 25-30.
A: I'm sorry to hear that you feel disappointed about your purchase. How may I help you?Before you answer me, please let me say something. Scuds are gift from nature to me that I never expect so many people like to buy them. I care customer and I care about quantity. That's why I listed multiple quantity options for customer to choose from. I count every order by myself one by one using modified liquid dropper and different plastic containers. 10 at most per container to prevent miscount. Collect all the scuds in the five containers, place in one and add 10% of order quantity to final count. So you should get exactly 55 instead of 50 or less if you order 50. One picture that I posted in the webpage was exactly 1000 scuds in two separated containers. Each container is exactly 500 scuds. That would be a good proof of my interest in counting but no one ask. Some customers like to use visual estimation instead of using scientific tools to count to question the honestly of the seller. Someone say customer is always right. Seller should listen to them and serve what they want if possible to make good sales and better feedback experience. Visual estimation probably produced an error even for small counts because scuds like to aggregate together and the male ones are pale and not easily visible which lead to miscount. Anyway, don't worry, I'll make you happy even you don't trust me.
The following link is a video clip I made recently for your reference:Natural live food for fish:
Scuds and bloodworms 天然活餌：飛毛腿與紅蟲
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yU_DM6rNSY (just copy and paste to search bar)