# Whatsit?



## Tex Guy (Nov 23, 2008)

_IGP1231.DNG by Bill, just Bill, on Flickr
This critter showed up in Tex Gal's shrimp tank. What is it? It's between 1/16 and 1/8 in.


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## kimcadmus (Nov 23, 2008)

looks like a tiny stomatopod/mantis shrimp


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## Tex Guy (Nov 23, 2008)

kimcadmus said:


> looks like a tiny stomatopod/mantis shrimp


Except that they are marine, No?


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## doubleott05 (Jul 20, 2005)

what you got there son is a gen-U-ine texas nasty creepy crawly shrimp and the only way to eradicate that nasty in-fest-ation is to get you a 12 guage wolly slayer and blow er` to smith-er-ines. 

dont let it touch you though. if it touches you your nervous system will go nuts and you will spasm so hard your back snaps and your will cough up your left lung and crap out your intest-eynes.

good luck with yoru creepy crawly partner.


..........actually it does look like a mantis shrimp... it might be a dragonfly nymph they look like that before they morph... i think its dragonflys or it might be a horse fly nymph.

Thanks
Elliot


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

It is a freshwater crustacean, an amphipod, commonly known as a scud.

See this wikipedia article


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

+1 on HeyPK's identification. I have some of these in my tanks. The fish regard them as a great delicacy, so there are very few and I almost never see them. But in my "nano" plant growing bowls where there are no fish, they multiply. You will see them move in two ways: crawling slowly along the substrate, and swimming rapidly with a jerking motion. They are primarily bottom dwellers, and will burrow a very short distance into the substrate.

That is a great photo! Maximum size is about 1/4". When they are mature, ocasionally you will see a larger female swimming with a smaller male clasped to her back.

I think they coexist with ornamental shrimp without problems, eating the same things.


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

When I was in high school I had some tanks and I had a Cladophora algae problem. I introduced some scuds from the local creek, and they ate the Cladophora very nicely. However, when they finished the Cladophora, they ate my plants for dessert. Later, I had another hair algae outbreak and I got some scuds from a ditch. They must have been a different species, because they never touched the algae or the plants, but quietly starved.


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## kimcadmus (Nov 23, 2008)

Scud! it is. Looks like you need to take it trout fishing
http://www.flyfishersrepublic.com/entomology/crustaceans/freshwater-shrimp/


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## Tex Guy (Nov 23, 2008)

Thanks everyone for your help. At least I can now breath easier that it's not an alien invasion from Xenu!


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## fishyjoe24 (May 18, 2010)

yes it is a scud, Odontodactylus scyallarus has lots of colors...


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## digital_gods (Apr 23, 2010)

I got seed shrimp in my cherry shrimp tank. Interesting copepods to watch scurry around.


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