godd way to separate collected inverts from "gunk"?

Going to one local pond with tons of flat rocks in the shallows off shore I was able to collect a couple hundred mayfly larvae and similar beasties by picking up a rock & shaking it in a bucket of water till all the critters were washed off. The downside of this is there is a lot of silt and bits of "junk" in the bucket as well.

Not wanting to dump all of this in (even though I suppose the filters and substrate vacuuming will take care of it eventually) - is there a secret method for removing most of the "ick" from this group of critters before they become fish food? Seeing as they are rather flat and stick to the bottom, so far I haven't seen a good way to do so.

thanks.

Edited by IvanMike, 30 September 2011 - 11:40 AM.

If it's silt and other fine particles causing the problem, you can dump the bugs-and-mud mixture into a net and swish it through the water to remove the mud. If it's big pieces of detritus, you'll just have to separate them one at a time.

I LOVE watching my darters kill a scud...but I've pretty much quit looking for them as it's too time consuming to pick them out one by one.

I have the same problem with scuds but in late fall early winter I can find piles of unrotted leaves in a river near me and there are so many scuds that picking them off is not too time consuming. I've tried putting them in my 10 gallon to start a colony but either they weren't getting anything to eat or the small fish and crayfish in there hunted them down before they could breed.

Can't believe I spelled good godd. 140 IQ and that's what you get...

I think the particles are of varying size, mostly silt, but a lot of other large junk. Unfortunately, that's just what the larvae gravitate towards as it provides cover. I was actually thinking of running a small power filter with a sponge over the intake to get rid of the fine debris.

I have the same problem with scuds but in late fall early winter I can find piles of unrotted leaves in a river near me and there are so many scuds that picking them off is not too time consuming. I've tried putting them in my 10 gallon to start a colony but either they weren't getting anything to eat or the small fish and crayfish in there hunted them down before they could breed.

I second this! I have been finding more and more lately in leaflitter around the rivers/streams and have been stocking up (although the only "stocking" being done is by filling my 33 xl which houses a breeding pair of purple spotted gudgeons who decimate them all day.)

If the invertebrates are sensitive to light, you could try separating them from their detritus the way people separate brine shrimp from their egg cases. Cover most of the container they're in with some sort of opaque material. You can tape thick construction paper over it or wrap it in a cloth. The more opaque, the better. Then you shine light on only one small area. Brine shrimp all swim towards and stay in that lit area because they're algae eaters and the algae grows only at the surface of the deep lakes they live in, in the wild. You end up with all your tiny invertebrates crowded together in the lit area, with very few of them in the dark regions.

Or you could bait and trap the invertebrates. Put some cat or dog food inside a container whose opening is designed like the opening of a bristle worm trap. It's one-way, so if the bugs go in, they can't come out. It'll take them a couple hours, but eventually they'll all be inside the container, munching on the kibble.

Both methods take a little bit of time as they depend upon the locomotion of the invertebrates to do the separation for you. Using a filter like Newt suggested is much faster. You could use either a net or your choice of mesh size of fiberglass screen. When I was making my fry separators, I bought fiberglass screen at Home Depot for $5 and chose the 1/8" mesh size. Image: http://www.homedepot...ea8a054_300.jpg

Edited by EricaWieser, 30 September 2011 - 05:18 PM.

I am able to collect scuds and some aquatic insects by scooping up plants and other stuff up in a sieve with larger holes (say 1/8 to 1/4 in)and then suspending the sieve over a bucket with clear water from the pond. Scuds and some other stuff will drop through the sieve down into the bucket as the water in the sieve dries up. Never tried this with rocks however. Some insect larvae are too weak to move around much when out of water, but scuds can move well for long enough to get through the screen. This will separate about 90% of the "gunk" out. If you want to concentrate the scuds even more than this, pour the contents of the bucket into a shallow pan or bin (white works better) and use something like turkey baster to suck them up.