Grammarus Culture and Ecosystem Viability

Does anyone culture Grammarus that could key me into their care? I would like to setup my 55 gallon with sustainability in mind. Grammarus are one of the crustaceans that I'd like to have as part of the mini-ecosystem. From what I've gathered they eat decaying plant matter, but will eat new growth on stem plants if food is scarce.

This tank will have a very low fish load, possibly reserved to just 1 or two shiners so that the grammarus doesn't die out. I'd like to experiment to see if something sustainable involving fish can be accomplished on such a small level. Anyone else tried to set up something that was self sufficient save for light/heat input and filtration?

If youre talking about Gammarus (scuds), I accidentally collected some with pond plants, and within a few months they took over my tank. I had to do a complete drain and dry to eliminate them. I think they would survive just fine in your mini ecosystem, and if they run out of food, Im pretty sure they will eat each other.

Marine amphipods are very important detrivores, and can be cultured with relative ease. I would assume that their freshwater counterparts would be similar. I'd suggest collecting a few and adding them to a tank with lots of crevices and filamentous algae for them to hide in. They'll probably rarely be seen by day, and come out mainly at night.
Good Luck! I've been interested in trying the same thing.

I have been breeding scuds for about 7 years. Having a scud tank is an easy way to provide live food for small fish. They are very low maintenance.

One set up was a sponge filter in a 10 gal aquarium with no gravel I use unbleached paper towels to feed them. Believe it or not they love it.

Another set up is a 30 gal with an undergravel filter and a sponge filter with about 1.5 inches of small aquarium gravel. This set up does not alow easy access to the scuds because they get into the gravel quickly, but I am able to get a small amount from the unbleached paper towel. The smaller ones get into the sponge filter but do not seem to be a problem in there.

You can feed them the unbleached paper towels or use plants. But my goal is to easily remove the scuds to feed my small fish. I also place scuds in all of my tanks, they get into the gravel and breed in there.