CPO Crayfish Fighting Over Food

[ianeberle]

About a week ago, I got 4 dwarf orange crayfish (CPO) for my 36 gallon tank. I figured that 36 gallons was fairly large, so I figured four of these guys would be okay together.

When I released them into the tank, I purposely put them all at separate corners so they didn't fight immediately. They have wandered around and not really bothered each other until now.

I dropped an algae wafer in and within a minute or so, two of the crayfish were fighting over it. One would pull it away and the other would pull it back - like little kids. Then they started clawing at each other and one backed down. When my pleco came over to get a little bit of the algae wafer (he is about 2 inches or so), one of the CPOs latched onto his tail until he swam away.

Is this normal behavior or are they really hungry or something?

 

[jetajockey]

Sounds pretty normal, the only reason they are community 'safe' is because of their diminutive size, they have all the attitude of a larger cray.

 

[ianeberle]

That's what I thought. Even after all their fighting, they consumed the algae wafer and now they act like bestfriends again... They only got angry with one another when they wanted the same food.

I don't know how people would keep these with their shrimp as they would just claw the shrimp and take all the food.