New CrayTank advice

[Coyne]

I'll be setting up a 10 gallon crayfish tank soon. I've never had a crayfish before, so I'm sure to have questions.

First up: I'm thing of using the black, blasting sand that I can get at Home Depot. I looked at it today and they had "very fine" and "medium" coursness. Honestly, I wasn't able to tell the difference. Does anybody with experience with this stuff have an opinion on which one is preferable? Would play sand be better?

 

[aluka]

definitely use the black blasting sand. I have the very fine, and really wish i gotten the medium coarseness one. Its very pretty when not disturbed, but when disturbed it is so dusty for a while, lol. so i would try the medium one!

 

[Coyne]

Noted... Thank you for that. I had read that the blasting sand can be too sharp for some catfish whiskers, but I'm assuming that's not an issue for crayfish.

 

[oscarchic11]

Get the medium def... its what i have in my Oscar tank... seeing as crays have shells shouldnt be a problem...

 

[Coyne]

Is a 10 gallon tank large enough for a crayfish? Every website I looked at when I searched "crayfish care" said it was, although the minimum, but I plugged it into AqAdvisor and it basically said it was too small. Thought?

 

[oscarchic11]

I have mine in a 10... dont try 2 plant it tho... ur plants will become food...

 

[Coyne]

It'll likely get the rock cave that I make and thats it for decorations. I read that not only do they eat live plants, but have a tendency to knock over and move around any other decorations they are able to.

Good to have be put at ease about the tank size though.

 

[oscarchic11]

This is my tank...

 

[Coyne]

Spartan... That's how I want mine to be.

Was that a heater I saw in the back? I was under the impression they weren't required for crayfish so I didn't purchase one.

 

[Craw Chief]

10 gallons is sufficient for one single crayfish, but you can't fit more than one in there. I use the black blasting sand in my tanks and it's perfectly fine. A heater is not necessary with a crayfish, but you can use one if you choose. They tend to be a bit more active in warmer water, but that's mainly anecdotal

 

[aluka]

it really depends on what type of crayfish you get. We have cajun dwarf crayfish, they about the size of an amano shrimp, so 10 gallon can fit like 50 of them. They always dont eat plants.

But most of the non dwarf crayfish, eat plants and can be aggressive towards each other.

 

[cgthebeast]

Dwarf orange crayfish are pretty cool to. I`ve never kept a crayfish but I catch them in my creek all the time.

 

[Coyne]

The type Ive been researching are only supposed to get to be around 6", so Hopefully the 10g will suffice.

I had also read that they like to climb up the filter intake and the bubble stone's air line. I got some black hose and black aquarium silicone and have glued the hose tightly into the corner. Hopefully this will make it very difficult for him/her to use it to climb on (and make it less visible in general).

 

[oscarchic11]

I have a heater in mine because she has been housed with guppies as she is a more peaceful marbled cray... tho she recently turned blue as a result of diet...

 

[patrickriley2010]

My parents just bought 59 acres a creek runs through the property and there is a 2 1/2 acre pond. There are little mud mounds all over the wet property and I'm told they are crawdads "that's what we call them here" . Anyone know if a wild one could be caught and tanked? And if so any way of sucking them out of their mud holes ?

 

[Coyne]

When I was a kid, we used to "fish" for them with hook, line and bait,

Not sure about keeping one, but I don't see why not. I'd think you'd want to find out the species so that you'll have an idea of how big it will get.

 

[cgthebeast]

Yep you have to feed them live food and if you want to catch them you watch the water very carefully then stir it up and look for mud lines from where they have darted back .if we catch a lot of big ones down here, we
Have a crawfish boil.

 

[Coyne]

Ok... Im gluing together a crayfish cave out of some rocks. Its it better to have it open at both ends "tunnel style", or open at only one end "traditional cave style"?

 

[oscarchic11]

I have 1 tunnel style, and 1 cave style... she prefers the tunnel so she can got in more than 1 way...

 

[kjacks]

I think it depends on your crawfish (which is one word we call them usually as we are eating them..lol)

Mine prefers the traditional and diggs sand all up from the bottom of the tank so they can barely fit through the hole in the cave .. i have a breeding pair in a 20g h.. mine havent as of yet tried to escape just lays out sorta on the fake amazon swords i have in my tank ..