crayfish info?

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willowthepoet

Aquarium Advice Activist
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i just got a little (about 3" from head to tail) crayfish from petsmart (it snuck into the shipment of feeder fish) that has a slightly purple-ish back. it's super cool. i have a bridge ornament in my tank that he likes to hide under, so i call him the troll under the bridge.

um... anybody have any info? anything special i should know?

they just eat whatever food and stuff falls to the bottom, right?
 
They will eat your fish... depending on the species, can you post a picture? How large are the claws?
 
i would post a pic, but my camera has somehow gone missing.... i'll try to describe as best i can.

small body, like i said, about 3" from head to tip of tail. the claws are small. the whole claw segment is about 1/2", but the opening between the two ends of the claw is only about 1/4". the head comes to a point between the eyes (which aren't ON the head... they're on little protrusion) and there are a bunch of antenna-looking things coming from the front of the head.

he's hanging out at the base of one of my plants right now, holding onto leaves with claws and using the little finger things by his mouth to (seemingly) scrape junk off the leaves and eat it.

i doubt he could eat my fish. he was hitch-hiked in with rosy red minnows... and i don't know why the fish breeding place would have anything in their tanks that could eat the fish they're selling.

he's in my guppy tank, which i'm using to breed food for my boyfriend's oscar. the only thing in the tank that i wouldn't want to be hurt is my honey gourami... but he's certainly too big to be eaten. i'm not worried.
 
I dont really know alot about crayfish, but I know if they can eat it they could.

Feeder minows are proabaly grown in ponds, thats how he got in there. If it is still small he wont be a problem, but if he gets big.... Enjoy :)
 
he might be a blue cray fish. The only difference between him and a normal one is something missing in their DNA a mutation that makes them lose color pigment or something. Anyway, he will probably get big enough to eat your guppies, and he isn't scraping junk off your plants he is eatting them. I had one for a few days and he did a marovlus job of snipping all my anacharis plants at the base.
I would suggest if you want to keep him getting a little 10gal tank, make sure its cycled they are very sensitive to nitrite levels. He would also probaly prefer a sand substrate and lots of hiding places. Also, keep a tight lid on with little openings they are climbers, and escape artists. You can feed him sinking carnivore pellets on occasion, and algea waffers. That should make him a pretty happy little crawdaddy.
 
haha... i just went over and looked and the tank bottom is littered with discarded anacharis leaves! that's okay, the plants die anyway... i don't know why but i just cannot keep any plant alive.

this is a bad attitude, but the guppies were bred to be food, so i don't see the difference between them being eaten by the crayfish, or if i take them to the oscar.

thanks for the info though!
 
yes, be will eat any fish in that tank eventually. The claws are small now, but they do not remain at the same proportion as he grows...the get larger on occasion, we catch ones wher ethe claws are almost as longas the body (The claws are also regenerative, if they lose one, in a fight or while molting, it will grow back, get to full size eventually
 
I've had one in a 90 gallon tank now for years......it was tiny when i got him.
Now he's about six inches long.......and master of his domain.

But he is not very quick anymore.....he just goes about his business cleaning up scraps left over after each feeding. Nobody bothers him and he returns the favor.

When he was younger I suspect he was the cause of a missing fish now and then. But I can't remember the last time I lost a fish in that tank.
 
I have a tiny one (2" max.) in with my dwarf gourami and my ACF....so far he hasn't bothered either of them, but I plan to get him his own tank once he gets bigger (if he gets bigger). So far, I can't get an I.D. on him....he's not blue, just pale white with bluish/brown spots.
 
that's exactly what mine looks like! only my guy's shell is a little more purple/blue... but that's probably just natural colour differences, or mine could be ready to shed relatively soon.

man i wish i could find my camera....

i don't think he's a threat really. he seems pretty slow-moving whereas the fish are fast and constantly fluttering all over the place. i would only worry if there were other bottom-dwelling critters around for him to battle with over territory (like your ACF, crazyred... i'd watch him if i were you)
 
Well mine had a hold of my frog within hours of him being in the tank with him. I should have known it was going to happen the way the frog sat up when I floated him in the tank. He knew. I have a dwarf frog, so your clawed one might be okay.
 
crazyred said:
I have a tiny one (2" max.) in with my dwarf gourami and my ACF....so far he hasn't bothered either of them, but I plan to get him his own tank once he gets bigger (if he gets bigger). So far, I can't get an I.D. on him....he's not blue, just pale white with bluish/brown spots.
Click to expand...

part of the reason yours is so light is the substrate - if you had black gravel in there, he'd be a much darker brown color
 
Yeah, he changes color a little based on location and lighting. He looked totally different in my 29 with natural gravel (had to move him, he was killing my anacharis!!) I think my ACF is too big and too fast for my yabbie to grab. My ACF is pretty big (5" at least) and she's pretty mean. In fact, I thought I saw her try to grab the craw and eat him when I first put him in the tank. He stays outta the frog's way now and so does "Bad Gourami" (my mean dwarf gourami that has also been exiled to my 10. LOL, it's turning into a mish mash of creatures.

I'll probably get "Crawdaddy" a tank of his own soon.
 
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