Crayfish in tropical aquarium?

[Taiken5968]

I would like to put two crayfish in my community semi-aggressive freshwater aquarium. I caught them out of the pond behind my house. I have them in a separate tank to make sure they don't have any diseases that I can see.

I just want to know is anyone has done this, and if they had any problems. I don't know if the crayfish will pinch any other fish, and harm them.

 

[Fresh N Salt guy]

Yes they will. We caught crayfish for my friends tank. He was starting a wild tank and we had largemouth fry already in the tank when we brought them home. I let him borrow my 10 gallon and did a lifeguard treatment on the crayfish. After releasing them, 3 of the 5 1 inch fry got killed by pinchers. You said a semi aggressive tanks so if your fish have some size to them they will be fine, but if you have any of the smaller schooling fish they could be at risk. Use your best judgement. Even rubberband their claws at first to see of they strike at your fish. Worst thing is your fish kill your pond crayfish rather than a pricey gem getting cut open.

 

[Taiken5968]

Yes they will. We caught crayfish for my friends tank. He was starting a wild tank and we had largemouth fry already in the tank when we brought them home. I let him borrow my 10 gallon and did a lifeguard treatment on the crayfish. After releasing them, 3 of the 5 1 inch fry got killed by pinchers. You said a semi aggressive tanks so if your fish have some size to them they will be fine, but if you have any of the smaller schooling fish they could be at risk. Use your best judgement. Even rubberband their claws at first to see of they strike at your fish. Worst thing is your fish kill your pond crayfish rather than a pricey gem getting cut open.

I do have fairly large and medium size fish. I have opaline gourami tiger barbs, red glass barbs. My smallest fish would be kulih loaches and Cory catfish. I guess I'll leave them out. I was hoping they would make a nice addition to the tank. They are small but I'll them in a gallon tank with some tadpoles I caught.

Thanks for the information. Glad to know before I put them in and risked killing or injuring anything.

 

[Fresh N Salt guy]

Try rubber banding their claws for a couple days. Feed em heavy right before you release them and just see. I'm telling you off 1 experience what happened to us. You might even get one that's cool and 1 ahole and you can just take the ahole out and keep the good one. If they strike at your fish then go throw him on a hook and add a largemouth to your tank . If they are running around with the cories and feeding with them, or the cories are backing the dads down away from food then pull the rubber bands and you can rest easy. If he's striking at your fish when they swim by, or pushing your fish off food and being aggressive then add his dumbass to a gumbo and go grab another one. You could probably even find smaller ones at a bait shop and introduce them and put them in their place before they are big enough to do damage. You can successfully get dads into that tank, it just might not necessarily be those exact 2 you have

 

[Taiken5968]

Try rubber banding their claws for a couple days. Feed em heavy right before you release them and just see. I'm telling you off 1 experience what happened to us. You might even get one that's cool and 1 ahole and you can just take the ahole out and keep the good one. If they strike at your fish then go throw him on a hook and add a largemouth to your tank . If they are running around with the cories and feeding with them, or the cories are backing the dads down away from food then pull the rubber bands and you can rest easy. If he's striking at your fish when they swim by, or pushing your fish off food and being aggressive then add his dumbass to a gumbo and go grab another one. You could probably even find smaller ones at a bait shop and introduce them and put them in their place before they are big enough to do damage. You can successfully get dads into that tank, it just might not necessarily be those exact 2 you have

The two I have are small so it may work out.