Crayfish - Can they live together?

[athens.asad]

I have got a huge red craw dad in a 60 g. 3 weeks back ,I added a medium blue crayfish and red craw dad chased him few times . Last week I saw eaten dead blue crayfish .i was feeling bad but last night I saw my blue cray fish alive and kicking . It was the cover of the blue fish which I saw floating . Today I have added a white crayfish . My question is - do crayfish cannibalise! Can they stay together with other crayfishes .


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[DocOck]

Yes they are big time cannibals! In fact, they will eat anything they can. My family had a crayfish farm and I would always have aquariums with them. If you want three, make sure they are all about the same size and give them plenty of places to hide. Especially when they are molting and they are vulnerable. If the others find them at this stage they are toast even your beautiful big red claw


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[athens.asad]

Thanks so much DocOck .With a heavy heart I am writing this that one of the crayfish ate my huge pregnant albino tiger barb last night . I woke up to discover that the barb was half eaten with all the eggs and it's mouth was open as of it was screaming in pain . I am very sad for him .it was the first time one of my fish was pregnant and the end was terrible.i am wondering how it caught the barb as the barb was very agile and quick , living in the tank for years!


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[cgthebeast]

At night fish tend to go into a "coma" mode. They just kinda of hang there, so the crayfish prob attacked it then

 

[scuba dude]

Is a crayfish also nocturnal much like a lobster is? We night dive for lobsters since they are much more active after dark. If they are I would think it would only be a matter of time before they found that sleepie fish.

 

[Autumnsky]

I would also wonder if the fish could have been egg bound, became ill and/or died. Definitely they will catch fish, no doubt about that, but many critters get blamed for killing things when they just clean up the mess.

I would also do a water parameters check and make sure all the levels are safe.

Make sure you are feeding them some Crab Cuisine from Hikari or something like a food for dwarf shrimp, which would have a good source of minerals so they won't have any issues molting.

 

[DocOck]

There are hundreds of species of crayfish and for the most part they are nocturnal. This is because it is ideal time to hunt for "sleeping" fish or scavenge and not get eaten themselves by raccoon or a big bass or each other.


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[athens.asad]

Thanks All .@Autumnsky - perhaps you are right ,because there has been not much casualty after that though I have few other vulnerable species living with the crawdads.none of them are eaten after that incident.


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[beandoo]

Is a crayfish also nocturnal much like a lobster is? We night dive for lobsters since they are much more active after dark. If they are I would think it would only be a matter of time before they found that sleepie fish.

Indeed this is why you don't want fish that sleep at the bottom of the tank because that is easy to find/get food.