Critters Direct Live Freshwater Scuds (gammarus, sp) Qty-100

Update: it’s has been 8 months since I ordered and the scuds are going strong— I bought 100 but I reckon I have many hundreds now. Some eventually hitched a ride into my newer 55 gallon shrimp tank and they breed like crazy so I now have a ridiculous amount of scuds now. I have not been able to prove that my puffers, guppies or bettas eat them so at this point they are just weird tiny little creatures flying around my shrimp tanks and hogging all the shrimp food. The only annoying thing is that they are so tiny and so plentiful that you can’t really have them in a tank that has any filter besides a sponge filter because they will get sucked into the other filters and then you have to figure out how to save their lives when you’re cleaning your filter. Original review: I didn't count them obviously but they were all alive and there were some detritus worms as well which is a bonus. If I could do anything different I would order more especially if you're getting these to put in a tank with livestock that would eat them (puffers, guppies, etc.). I love how active and fast they are. I know they act as a clean up crew and I kinda like their appearance more than all the bladder snails that clean up tanks. I made sure to have lots of plants, moss and places for them to hide so hopeful they can escape all the predators in my tanks and still do their clean up job. They're definitely the most expensive aquatic livestock I've ever bought so I definitely hope they can escape the fish. They are obvious to spot in a tank, not small like copepods. Expensive but I'll probably order again and just keep them in their own nano tank because having them in a tank with established other fish is stressful, I did a water change and siphoned the substrate and had to net them out. It arrived faster than the original estimate.

Was alive and healthy

Many arrived dead, you can see in the photo that the bag has many dead scuds at the bottom. However, I still give it 5 stars, there are more than enough to make my own colony. The seller was meticulous and thorough with their packaging. The plastic bag they arrived in was made of material that allows the water to breathe, while not leaking. That bag was placed within a ziplock, then surrounded with paper, at the bottom was I believe a handwarmer, this was all within a insulated foil bubble wrap box. I honestly do not believe the seller could have done anything more to prevent the scuds that died during transit. I deposited some to my 75 gallon aquarium and the rest is in a 3 gallon tank to start my own colony. The ones that are alive are alive and seem to be thriving. Overall I am happy with my purchase.

They arrived alive and vigorous.

Fish sure seemed to find them tasty. Resilient little buggers, if they can stay alive they'll help keep a tank clean a bit. And since they're so good at hiding, its easy to miss a few when doing water swaps. I decommissioned a tank awhile back but left it full of water (no heater, no filter, no nothing) due to snail overpopulation. Removed all my fish, shrimp etc and new the snails would be fine without water treatment. After about a month of sitting in still water in a basement room that had an average temp of 55 degrees, i finally got around to emptying the tank and cleaning the sand. I found about 10 of these little fellas zooming around as I disturbed the tank. Would be nice to be able to get them to reproduce so i dont have to keep buying them, and could just have my own farm.

Most arrived dead

A little light on the count I think but so small hard to say. I got these to help keep my tank clean, but I believe my fish ate them all before they had a chance to do anything of the sort great fish food not so good for tank cleaners the fish eat them all.

My critters arrived alive and kicking!! Took a while to get here but in all due farness there was a big snowstorm on top of us heading east, so, I understand the delay. I was so happy with my package, double bagged, topped off with paper so no flopping around in bags and insulated package. I was happy over with this experience, and it was below zero here the night B/4 it arrived so very cold outside. I was alerted as AD says to come pick up my order from local PO. Thank u for that!! Therefore no frozen critters!! Great realistic price too!! I'm buying more from here!!!!