collecting gammarus

Hi, all
I've been collecting gammarus here in Idaho for several years; they make great sunfish live food. Anyone on this forum baited gammarus to see if they can be "trapped"? I haven't tried it yet, but I was observing some of my gammarus in an aquarium with dwarf crayfish recently. I dropped some yellow perch ribs left from some fish filleting I did Saturday into the aquarium with the dwarfs and gammarus. In no time, there were several gammarus on the ribs, evidently eating with relish. What I'm considering doing this weekend is to drop some fine mesh matting into a creek that I know has gammarus, rock each corner and and place some perch ribs in the middle of the mesh and cover with some cardboard to create shade and leave it for a few days to a week to see if it attracts any gammarus. Any comments?

I think it could work, maybe check it daily if possible so you can fine tune the length of time needed to capture them. I realy have no experience at this but it sounds interesting, be sure and report back to us on how it goes.

When all we're looking for is gammurus, Dustin and I go to the Saluda River just below Lake Murray(less than 10 miles away from both of us), place a large, fine meshed dipnet just downstream of a clump of hydrilla and run our hands through and shake the clump. Get hundreds per attempt. We stocked up a few weeks ago.

I still have some gammarus I collected since this past christmas...and have them in a tub with aeration...and I feed them plants and fish pellets...what do you guys do to keep them alive? Do you guys use aeration? Also are they easy to breed?

When all we're looking for is gammurus, Dustin and I go to the Saluda River just below Lake Murray(less than 10 miles away from both of us), place a large, fine meshed dipnet just downstream of a clump of hydrilla and run our hands through and shake the clump. Get hundreds per attempt. We stocked up a few weeks ago.

Cool idea, thanks guys, I have been trying to figure out how to get significant quantities of these things for years!

I agree with Chip. I've found you can get large numbers by shaking out mats of watercress, elodea, ludwigia, etc., or fibrous root systems. If you want to try trapping, you might be better off making a bag from the mesh and stuffing it with dead leaves and the bait; the scuds should take up residence in the leaf litter. This technique is also useful for sampling stream salamander larvae (when used unbaited).

Bearskookums- Check out the Culturing scuds thread.

Edited by Newt, 17 July 2008 - 11:57 AM.