Raising a lobster

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peekingbear

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Sep 20, 2014
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5
Hello ~
I am a jewellery designer and wanted to make something based on the exoskeleton of the lobster ~

In order the accurately portray their anatomy, I was thinking about buying a live lobster from the supermarket and holding onto him while I study their movements and bodies, but I'm not sure how I should house him during that time ..

I'm still a full time student so I'm assuming this project may continue for a decent amount of time-- at least over a month-- as I can't dedicate all my time to working on it. I've been thinking about what to do with him afterwards as well :/ after watching him for months I can't possibly throw him to the pot and eat him afterwards, but I don't really have the capacity [or permission, since I live at home] to keep him.

So I have two issues;
how to house him [ie. how big of a tank should I get him, is a large rubbermaid ok, feeding, temperature, what kind of saltwater, etc]

what to do after [???????? like I have pet turtles but I don't think I should throw him in with them cos they'll fight? and I love my turtles more than I love him so I can't do that, anything? I really don't want to buy him without a plan for after]

I know this is an aquarium forum so a lot of you will probably definitely oppose eating him after, or even buying him for the sake of study [?] but I really do want to execute this project as anatomically accurate as possible :/
Thank you for reading ! any suggestions, ideas, criticisms, feel free to throw them at me ~
 
Hello,

For the lobster you're looking to get you'll need a large aquarium. It will need to be saltwater, do some research on what a saltwater aquarium entails. You will need to cycle it and it will need a chiller as those lobsters are coldwater. This isn't really a practical idea IMO as the supermarket tanks are designed to house them and to do similar will cost you a couple grand.


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you can get fresh water lobsters or crayfish and keep them in a 20 gal tank , they will eat almost anything , but you will need to cycle the tank and have a heater and filter
 
freshwater lobster! That sounds like the right option for my situation ..
well I'm looking at them right now, their claws are significantly different ㅠㅠ I'm most attracted to their claws haha ~ the rest of the anatomy is quite different as well

I do know some supermarkets sell already cooked lobsters so maybe I could just dedicate my entire winter break to him and that way I could manipulate his movement as well ..?
There's no other options other than dropping a couple grand or getting crawfish instead?


Thank you for the help so far ~!
 
Red had a good idea which prompted me to see if you might like either of these types,

Freshwater is a little bit of work but not very difficult once you have healthy filtration, and commonly known as a cycled tank.

If you go to the articles section here, there are many interesting write-ups about topics of interest for setting up a fish tank. There is a starter article link in my signature.

My guess is that you wouldn't want to eat the lobster after watching it for a few months. Don't get me wrong. I eat them, just wouldn't want to eat my "pet" lobster. To me there are food or friends (unless I was starving, I guess) :flowers:

Tropical Freshwater Lobsters for Freshwater Aquariums: Blue Knight Lobster

Black Scorpion Lobster

Cambarellus patzcuarensis Orange (CPO/orange dwarf crayfish/Mexican dwarf crayfish) These guys claws aren't as chunky as a real lobster.
The Orange Dwarf Crayfish (Full Article) | Details | Articles | TFH Magazine®
 
Black scorpion looks most appealing to me at this point~ from the top he looks quite similarly hefty, and the pincers look pretty OK just not as WOW as the ones on saltwater lobsters do

I sound so picky hahahha
at this point I might just consider purchasing a lobster that's already been cooked and try to remove the meat as cleanly as possible :s


but yeah i definitely can't eat my pets
I raised pet ducks for a period of time, and since then can't eat duck anymore because of that ~_~ ek
 
Welcome to the forum.

You can for sure get the meat out of the shell. You could use a dremel and cut the cooked one and put it back together again and let it dry.

I had a claw that was as big an adults hand (yum, not my pet)! It was so astounding, that these creatures can be so large and old too.

You might try observing at a local restaurant or aquarium, online videos, too. And your dried one. Maybe try keeping a live FW Cray so you can observe behavior and movement of the body and see how close they might be in manor.

They are very amazing and fun to watch.

Here is mine.
60074-albums11380-picture66039.jpg


This is my tiny little Orange Dwarf Crayfish (CPO) in a 6.6G tank, lower left center above the white shell
60074-albums9764-picture50416.jpg


Good Luck to you and I wish you much success in your project, and I would love to see your design when you are (ready, even not finished or) finished.
 
Hello ~ thank you ~!

Wow .. my hands are pretty small, but to imagine a lobster claw at just my hand's size is already really mind boggling ~

I sat at the supermarket the other day watching the lobsters for about 15 minutes before the seafood man asked me what I was doing and I fled, that might have to be my choice in action since there aren't many aquariums or seafood restaurants around where I reside [Red Lobster? Does that count?] .. unfortunately they don't provide much light for the lobsters so it's hard to see details :/

Your crawfish are really cute! Maybe I should do a whole crustacean collection afterwards ..
Thank you ! I eventually post in progress and completed photos on my blog, so if you really are interested I could of course leave the link somewhere here ~ hehe
it's nothing special though, please don't expect too much out of meee heehee
 
Hello ~ thank you ~!

Wow .. my hands are pretty small, but to imagine a lobster claw at just my hand's size is already really mind boggling ~

I sat at the supermarket the other day watching the lobsters for about 15 minutes before the seafood man asked me what I was doing and I fled, that might have to be my choice in action since there aren't many aquariums or seafood restaurants around where I reside [Red Lobster? Does that count?] .. unfortunately they don't provide much light for the lobsters so it's hard to see details :/

Your crawfish are really cute! Maybe I should do a whole crustacean collection afterwards ..
Thank you ! I eventually post in progress and completed photos on my blog, so if you really are interested I could of course leave the link somewhere here ~ hehe
it's nothing special though, please don't expect too much out of meee heehee

LOL just tell seafood guy that you are doing a study of them and hopefully he won't mind:)

As for Red Lobster, I think they want you to know it is alive, but they don't want you to fall in love before dinner. :rolleyes:

Send me a PM and send me the link. Sea inspired jewelry is all the rage right now.
 
try looking at purple reef lobster you can keep one in a 40g as they only grow to 6 inch
water chemistry must be pristine with little to no swings
 
Hmm...
I dunno, these baby lobsters just don't look fierce enough :/
I want one like wham bam here I am ~!
so I guess I gotta go big ...
 
Hmm...
I dunno, these baby lobsters just don't look fierce enough :/
I want one like wham bam here I am ~!
so I guess I gotta go big ...


Then you're going to be going wham bam here's my money!


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