Crayfish / Crabs

[ziffus]

Anyone know of a good screen that will keep crabs and crayfish from climbing out of tanks (via filter, heater, airlines, etc) ? I understand there are hoods out there that allow anywhere from 1-8"+ of clearence... but I have yet to come across a decent screen.

If I can't find something along the lines I'm looking for, I'm thinking about adding trim at the top of the tank (maybe 2-3 inches from the glass) and then inserting a 1/4"-1/2" of plastic to seperate everything. Of course I'll end up drilling / cutting holes for intake - that's a given. I'm basically losing my mind by chasing down 4"-8" crayfish and 2"+ crabs all over.

I'm also thinking about placing a 1-2 feet shallow dish of water near the tank. I can only hope that the escaped will flee to this water. Then again, even if they do flee to the dish, it'll be the American...Aquarium Gladiators free-for-all.

 

[William]

I have a few suggestions.

Given you can find one for your sized tank, Terrarium hoods are great. They lock down, and you can cut it to fit TIGHT against the filter, I have this on a 10gal that I have my betta in, and trust me.. theres no way the crabs can get out of it.


Also, Since back behind there where they get out is generally out of view, Try some black duct tape [ if your hood is black ], put some cardboard over the holes when you tape, so any crawling crabs and such arn't exposed to the sticky bits.


One last thing I do is to simply set my fishes various food containers on the back over the holes, great for storage and keeps the lil buggers in.



[ I have 8 fiddlers, So I'm familier with methods for keeping them form escaping ]

 

[jratuszn]

It seems to me that most people who have trouble with escaping crabs don't have a sufficient area out of the water for them to rest and hide in. I have an open top with plenty of ways to get out, but because there are enought places for the crabs to hide in above the water line, it would be more of a risk to themselves to try to climb over the lip of the tank. Try getting one of those suction-cup shelves that look like rock, and placing it right at your tank's waterline. You'll prolly want to add some sort of rock/plasic cave that your crab can hide in, too.

Just a suggestion,

-J

 

[ziffus]

I've tried cardboard, ductape, and using food containers. My crayfish usually knock the food containers over while the crabs crawl up the filter.

Before "Bob" died (A female crayfish... found out it was a female after I named it lol) she fell a good 3-4 feet 10+ times while escaping.