Blue crayfish

[FreshwaterTropical]

I'm looking into breeding some of these
I can get a few to start from my friends which his crays had babies. I would like to breed these and sell them to my LFS!
Are blue crayfish hard to breed or easy to?
My LFS sells blue crayfish for $20 each. They are about 2 in.
How much do you all think I can sell the babies for? If I grow them to 2 in.?

 

[FreshwaterTropical]

Anybody have any thoug

 

[FreshwaterTropical]

Anybody have any thoughts?

 

[siva]

Where do you plan on selling them?

Breeding crays is fairly easy. You want a pretty nice sized tank for a pair. A 20L may be big enough, depending on the size of the crays. You'll want lots of hiding spots for the female. The easiest method may actually be to remove the female to a seperate tank once she's berried. That way instead of trying to catch a zillion babies, you can just catch her and move her back to her tank once the babies hatch. You'll want to have the babies seperated from the parents or most of them will get eaten.

 

[Nu-Nu the eel]

Haha they sell em for 12 at my lfs! Great fish though, i support your idea

 

[FreshwaterTropical]

I would be selling them to my LFS. I am looking into purchasing a 55 gallon tank and I will probably get a tank divider to keep the baby creasy separate.

 

[Nu-Nu the eel]

I love those fish! Are they agressive??

 

[FreshwaterTropical]

I love those fish! Are they agressive??

Yes crayfish are very aggressive. They will catch and eat any fish in your tank. Best kept alone and need to have a lot of space to establish territories in a tank.

 

[Nu-Nu the eel]

Haha ya im pretty sure they would dominate my very trusting glowlights! Haha

 

[FreshwaterTropical]

Yeah they will kill everything in its territory!

 

[Nu-Nu the eel]

Hahaha evil little guys!

 

[FreshwaterTropical]

Oh yes they are.

Does anybody know how often crayfish will breed? How many babies?

 

[siva]

For crays I'd go 40 breeder instead of 55. I'm too lazy to look up the dimensions right now, but I believe the 40 has a bigger footprint, which is what you want since they are bottom dwellers. Those extra gallons in a 55 would just be wasted on the crays.

 

[siva]

I'm not sure if it varies between cray species, but the ones I've bred have produced more babies as they get bigger, but usually atleast 20, and they breed again right away.

Your LFS probably won't pay much for them. Nothing compared to what you could get selling them to hobbyists. Depending on their demand for those things, they may only be able to take 1 per week or something like that. I don't know the size of the shop or what kind of customer base they have, so I can't say. I would discuss this with them ahead of time so you have a good plan for all the young.

 

[tarpon]

If you tried to breed your friends offspring with each other that would be inbreeding..which im pretty sure is bad.

 

[siva]

It's fine. Just don't inbreed over and over again.

 

[FreshwaterTropical]

Thanks for all your help!
The 55 gallon tank I am looking at is on craigslist and is only $50!!!

 

[Nu-Nu the eel]

Score!!

 

[Greenphantom]

Not true about the crayfish be nasty just like people animals are all different I had one in a community tank with larger sized fish though but I do agree as far as smaller fish