Why did you leave the crayfish in long enough to eat so many fish? Sorry about the delay in getting back to you, but eggs take a minimum of four weeks to hatch. Cold water crayfish can have eggs on them for as long as six weeks. Hope this helps. I was considering getting an orange dwarf crayfish for my. Most websites I have read say that they are fairly peaceful and can be kept in a community tank,.
I have read some reports of them eating fish though. What should I think? I actually did an article on dwarf crayfish recently. You can check it out here. But in my experience, they are the only crayfish that can generally be kept safely in a community tank. With that being said, there is always some danger in keeping crayfish with fish.
They will eat anything that they can, and if a fish is sick, or they just get an opportunity, they will try to eat the fish. This is much more rare with dwarf crayfish, but it is still known to happen in rare instances. So always proceed with caution.
Also, you will still have to provide hiding places for the crayfish during molting, as fish will be more than happy to eat a small, vulnerable crayfish.
What you can do after you collect the eggs: — put them in a fish net the one used to catch the fish in your aquarium and put in in front of the output spray bar if you have a canister filter -put them in a breeding net and place the net under the output of your HOB filter.
I had a canister filter and I used a fish net in front of the output spray bar to keep the eggs moving and aerated. Usually one or two small pellets is more than enough. Also, always check their cave during weekly cleanings, since they are known to horde food, and it can accumulate in their and foul the water.
I just got an Australian Blue Lobster and I was wondering if I needed to put in some sort of bubble making machine? And how much I could fill my 10g tank upto? Also, you can filter the tank to within about two inches of the top with no problem. This can be done by creating an environment where he can submerge or stay above the water if it chooses to at first. You can cause problems for it if air bubbles become trapped in the gills.
It all depends on the species. Cold water crayfish tend to only mate when they believe it is spring, while the tropical variants will usually mate every few months.
I keep crayfish together with fish and they breed regularly. The orange ones, I find are the most passive. The blue and white ones sometimes have a go at each other but will usually only take a pincer off. They very rarely catch a fish, even at night, because they are relatively slow moving. If a fish is sick they will eat it. But healthy fish are usually safe. My larger fish even share wooden barrel hiding places tgether with crayfish and I havent lost one yet. Crayfish can also be trained to take the pellet from your fingers if you have enough patience and it impresses guests no end.
That sounds really cool. Was it with electric blue crayfish? I may have to try that in the near future. I posted a response to this elsewhere, but this is the thread I was searching for. Hand-feeding is indeed possible!
I have three freshwater crayfish and they are amazing little critters. It took me about two weeks maybe even a little less to get them used to the idea, but now as soon as I put my hand in the water at feeding time, they come right out.
It makes me feel pretty darn awesome that they now trust me enough to let me feed them. But they are one of the most interesting aquarium pets to keep, and I would recommend them to almost anyone. Assuming that you are feeding it a high quality food spirulina, sinking pellets and vegetables , and keeping the water as clean as possible, you should add a fluorescent light to the tank. Many crayfish will become dull under an incandescent light, but a fluorescent light that mimics natural light can improve their colouring considerably.
We were wondering if it would make any sense to feed it with living bait, maybe a scrimp or clam? They definitely appreciate live food in their diet, and ghost shrimp are a good, cheap option to feed them. With that being said, depending on the size of the crayfish and the tank, they may have trouble catching the shrimp. But even if they do find a way to get at it, most clams would be too large to fully eat, and the leftovers would really foul the water.
I would stick to live food, and maybe even try other aquarium staples like blackworms that are easy to obtain and feed. Thanks a lot Robert. We have a 7 gallon tank, and it is about 8 cm long. It is pretty active and fast, but so are the shrimp I gues. Some good places to find crayfish are aquabid. Many local forums have a section where people trade and sell fish. I have purchased many on my more rare fish on my local forum.
Also, many of the larger chains can custom order crayfish for you. With that being said, the people I know who have used it, have been pretty happy with it. Another option is Kijiji which is quite popular here for that sort of thing, and the thing that I find the best is local fish forums.
Most major cities will have a forum focused on the area, and you can usually find really great people through the forum. Good luck breeding your crayfish. I hope your successful. I have a red dwarf crayfish in a ten gallon with 6 guppy tank mates and i was wondering if i should buy him a protective one opening cave? Thank you! And if you want to save money on a cave, you can always do it yourself.
This creates a very affordable cave, and it will grow a thin layer of algae on it to give it that natural look. Both of these ideas will cost under 5 dollars. What fish go well with a crayfish he killed all guppies and the tetra neon and the ale guppy survived but if ii start over what fish would go well with him in my 10 gallon.
He also was making my Neons part of his diet- so I moved them to another tank. He does alright with the other two varieties- I was told because they are faster moving. Hope that helps! A crayfish will kill anything you put in with it. Fish, snails, or shrimp in there with her would be like putting a lizard in a closed cage with our cat. If you don't care about the lizard, okay … or, as long as the lizard can adequately hide, okay … All fish are bait to a crayfish. Unless you are very lucky and get a very peaceful crayfish, eventually it will catch and eat anything in its tank.
A lot of people disagree with me, but I always recommend crayfish only tanks. I have 2 large adult crays in my 40 breeder tank and have found that they will ALWAYS hunt fish, but if I supply small feeder minnows or guppies for them to hunt and eat, they leave my larger fish alone.
My son bought a crawfish for his 20 gallon aquarium that also contains goldfish. Its been about six months with no problems even during moulting. My question is now she seems to be loaded with eggs. She is a solo crawfish. Will the eggs hatch? If you have one of those species, then the eggs may be viable. What is far more likely though, is that the crayfish is producing non-viable eggs. I am considering getting a pair of electric blue crawfish for my community G.
I never overpopulate with fish, have 2 magnum filters and undergravel with 4 model 5 pumps. If just the one pair would let some of the offspring survive, I would prefer that. Thank you so much for your input, I just found the site and I am fascinated so far. What I can say is that more people have success keeping electric blue crayfish with fish than many of the other species.
Eventually, the crayfish will start to pick off fish, or the fish will get the crayfish during a molting. The key to crayfish survival is giving them numerous caves and hiding places. The more places that they have to hide, the better their chances of not being cannibalized by other crayfish or eaten by the fish during molting. Hello Robert I have a blue lobster and he likes to climb the decorative plants and water filter to try to get to the top of the water almost looks like he is trying to escape, is the behavior normal?
All crayfish are born escape artists, and they will constantly try to find a way out. Before I started carefully covering my crayfish tank, I used to come home to crayfish running around in my basement.
Hey guys! I was wondering if anyone knew if it would be safe the have 1 crayfish and maybe 2 small creek chubs together in a 10g tank?
Creek chubs are a surprisingly tough fish, but you still take a risk when you put fish and crayfish together. Eventually, either the crayfish, or the fish will likely get injured or eaten. Though in some cases, you can get lucky and keep them together in a well set up aquarium. You should also know that creek chubs get really large. An average creek chub can grow up to 12 inches in length, and will soon need a much larger tank than 10 gallons. For adult creek chubs you need something along the lines of 55 gallons at the bare minimum.
I find them a lot more interesting than most of the tropical fish out there. I would make sure to have a large tank, with plenty of hiding places for them. I would recommend at least 29 gallons, though larger would be better.
How long do they mate for. I have to crayfish that have been clutched together for over two hours now. In my experience, it tends to last about half an hour. But all kidding aside, if they mate for too long you should try to separate them.
Sometimes the mating goes wrong, and the male gets increasingly frustrated and may kill the female. Though hopefully by now, things will have worked themselves out in your aquarium. I have a little crawfish and shes been laying on her back for about a week. At first I figured she was molting, but after a few days and no progress Im a little worried. She will flip herself right side up, crawl around for awile and then flip back over.
Last night she was zooming around and then all the sudden just flipped onto her back. Today I offered some food and she chowed down, but now shes on her back again.
Any ideas? The general consensus is that this is caused by iodine deficiency. I would immediately pick up a marine iodine supplement, and begin to add it to your crayfish tank. My blue crayfish had babies about a week ago. A good majority of them are still hanging out under her tail, but there are a bunch that have left her and are moving freely about the tank. Should I be moving her away from the babies now? I would remove the parent as soon as possible.
It sometimes helps to subdivide the fry into separate tanks based on size. That reduces the cannibalism a fair bit. I have a red swamp crayfish,i heard that we have to find the ideal temperatures,but the problem is my aquarium is warmer,how to cool it down?
Also,how to clean a sand gravel? There are three main ways to cool down an aquarium. The first is relocating it to a cooler part of the house. The second is to limit the amount of sunlight that the room and aquarium receive. If neither of those would work, then you can set up a fan to blow across the surface of the aquarium.
This will help to dissipate some heat. As for the sand, just hover the gravel hose a few centimeters above the surface, and it will pick up the waste without the sand. You may need to experiment a little bit, but the waste will always be lighter than the sand.
There could be several reasons for this. It may be stress, water quality, or nutrition. I would start with checking your water quality, and looking for sources of stress other crayfish, aggressive fish, etc.
If that seems fine, I would try a marine iodine supplement, to see if that helps at all. I got two crawfish from the WARF can I put them in my 29 gallon tank with my goldfish,gubbies,black mollies,neonfish.
A slow fish like goldfish would become a quick meal for the crawfish. And this is sentiment that is pretty widely shared by other aquarists. They are a cold water fish, and if the temperature is too warm, for too long, they will start to suffer nerve damage, and may die. If at all possible, I would transfer them to a cold water tank as soon as possible. I would recommend a minimum of 19 litres at the minimum. And then it would only keep very young hatchlings alive.
In my experience, you start to experience massive cannibalism by the time they reach about a centimeter in crowded conditions. It all depends on what country you are in. However, with that being said, you can often find very cheap, very basic aquariums at any of the major chain stores. Ignore the big kits that cost cost dollars.
I know in Canada, you can purchase a setup like this for about 25 dollars. The sponge filter is about 15 dollars and the aquarium about 10, and then I use play sand for the substrate and river rocks to create caves.
Very cheap, and yet still a great place to keep crayfish. Some turtles enjoy eating crayfish, but those are mostly larger ones like snappers. Do you have a turtle in mind for keeping them with? My crayfish is being still for the second day now, he moves a little bit and than freezes like dead, also his eyes start to seem blurry. Before a molt, its common for it to really slow down, and it will most likely try and find a hiding place soon.
Beyond that, just make sure that your water quality is alright, and continue to try and feed it a high quality food removing any excess, since they tend to stop eating before a molt. Thank you for the reply! Water quality is ok. My money is on it becoming ready for a molt. My crayfish would often get cloudy eyes right before a molt.
Keep an eye on it though just to be on the safe side. You can tell from the filaments protruding from between the plates.
I have a red clarkii crayfish and it has molted…. It is blue now! Is that a common thing? I cant seem to find info about a red crayfish turning blue on the internet. The decorations in the tank are all red, and the gravel is black. I dont know if this has anything to do with the color of the crayfish. I have one shrimp in the tank with it, and nothing else.
I hope you can give me an answer on this topic. I wish that I could help you with this one. It definitely makes the crayfish a lot more desirable though. I only saw this site on pintrist today March 3, but if you are still there I have also had red crayfish turn blue. I heard that if common crayfish like the ones I caught in my local river are more red when the water is colder and more blue when the water is warmer. So it will get bluer after each molt if the water is kept at normal room temperature.
At least that has been my experience. Shrimp pellets should make up most of their diet. But you should also add blanched vegetables and frozen fish food too. As for the fish food, I occasionally offer cubes of bloodworms and brine shrimp to mine. If they are breeding, you may also want to consider adding a marine iodine supplement that you can pick up at fish stores. Just be careful having that many crayfish though, unless you have a huge aquarium.
I have 5 red 3 white and 2 blue with the 1 white one having eggs on her back, when she still with the other crayfish, she eat her own egg by pick it up from her back. So i move her to new aquarium, she always climb my pipe and then she fell, will the egg hatch? Crayfish will often eat their eggs if they are stressed. I would expect that the eggs will still hatch, as long as they were fertilized in the first place.
She chilled out quickly. Still waiting on the rest of the eggs to hatch. I separated my female into her own tank last night as he young were being released. I last looked at her around 1am and all was still good she was still releasing them but when I checked again at am the female had de clawed herself and all the young were dead with half still attached to mum.
What did I do wrong or why do you think this has happened. I wish that I knew. Was the water treated, and how did you introduce it to the tank?
I have a white crawfish, female. She just went through her second molt. Her first one white and her second one blue, Im not sure what this means, some kind of nutritional deficiency?
Also, she seemed to have injured her claw. Ive heard of them declawing themselves in certain situations, was this injury or stressed based? The injury during molting is a far more common problem. While there are numerous possible reasons as to why this may have happened, the most common one is that there is an iodine deficiency in your crayfish.
In most countries you can order it online. And if it really becomes a problem, just make your own fish food and use it for crayfish food. There are numerous great recipes online, and most of them will still work well for crayfish. You may want to reduce the amount of shellfish and fish in the recipes slightly though, and increase the amount of vegetables.
Ladies and Gentle, please advise??? Just keep the tank clean, and her well fed, and assuming that the eggs are viable, they should hatch in the near future. After they hatch, and the hatchlings become free moving, you should the mother from the tank. I saved my crayfish from my biology class. He is a 3 inches long and mostly brown with a touch of red. I bought him a 1 gallon tank with a filter, lid, a hollow rock to hide in and a fake plant to climb up. I have been feeding him blood worms, lettuce and carrots.
He was covered in a fuzzy fungus so I used Pimafix to treat it -per the reccomndation of the pet Co employee. He has barely moved since day 6 of the 7 day treatment.
Could the treatment be causing this? I have had him for 8 days now and he was fine before! Treatments like Pimafix can be very hard on even healthy invertebrates. It may be that the crayfish is just having a hard time recovering from the treatment, so you may just need to give it time. Just keep offering it high quality food, and keep the aquarium clean. Good luck. What do we need to keep it? At the very least you need a 5 gallon container of some sort. Then you will need to add a filter. Probably the cheapest and easiest to find is a sponge filter, though you have to watch out for it crawling up the air hose.
If you do that, then it should be happy and healthy. Are there any household foods i could give it until im able to get some pellets? I put a couple leaves of lettuce in the container a few hours ago but so far it hasnt touched it. Also how often should it be fed? Some of their favorite foods in my experience are lightly boiled zucchini or cucumber medallions, boiled broccoli florets and shelled peas. You can also offer very small amounts of salt water fish ie.
Also, they generally prefer to feed at night, although they can be trained to be fed very early in the morning, or later in the evening. I know mine tend to be most active after the lights go out in their tank.
Move female dwarf crayfish with eggs — How to Can I move the female dwarf crayfish with eggs to a different tank? Any advice would be appreciated. You can move her, but it can be hard on your crayfish to move it into an uncycled tank. If you move her, then you will need to change the water daily, at least until the conditions stabilize. Also, you may want to find a more gentle way to move her. If possible, try using a large container to gently move her out of her tank.
A net may be too hard on her and the eggs. Robert, thanks for all your crayfish knowledge. I am a third grade teacher and we teach with the FOSS kits. For the first time, we found a mama on Tuesday morning with eggs.
We had worked with her on Monday so we have a pretty good indicator when the eggs were laid. Today, Thursday, we came to school to find another mama putting eggs under her tail. Pretty fascinating We have them in tubs so the kids can see them and work with them.
We move them to a separate basin to feed them except for elodea in their containers. I have separated the mothers. How often should I feed them? Will the babies be okay in the basins as long as I put in homes and things for them to hide under???
They are omnivores so in the wild they eat whatever they can get their claws on. Their main diet is decomposing animal matter and decaying vegetation. These are the easiest food sources to get hold of and they can easily be ripped apart by their claws.
They also eat small live fish, if they swim by close enough. It is much easier for them to catch live fish in an aquarium more on this later.
As they are not particularly strong swimmers, the food they eat usually must sink to the bottom of the river before they can eat it. They mostly use their claws and first two pairs of walking legs which have small pincers on the end to pick up food and eat it. It is not easy to watch them search for food since they are nocturnal. They wait until nighttime before leaving their shelter and scavenging food. Before adding them to an aquarium, the tank needs to be as similar as possible to their natural habitat.
They are not particularly demanding creatures, but a strange environment can lead to a hunger strike if they are too stressed to eat.
It is not difficult to replicate these conditions. The bottom of the tank should have plenty of rocks and a thin layer of fine grain substrate sand for them to partially burrow into.
The rocks need to have cracks and crevices between them for Crayfish to hide in. Positioning the filter outlet at the surface should cause a small current through the tank, or you can use an air pump or water pump. As we talked about earlier, they often eat plants, so are likely going to cause damage to any plants that you keep in the tank. Even though they are likely to get damaged, plants are a good way to vary a their diet. Hardy, fast-growing plants are the most likely to survive; examples of these include hornwort and java moss.
Vegetation such as vegetables, plants and algae may be used as the main source of food. It can be just as healthy as meat and is cheaper to buy. When they reach adulthood proteins are needed in smaller amounts as they are no longer growing. There are many food sources available for you to feed. Varying the diet will give them plenty of nutrients and will also keep things interesting for them.
Pellet-type foods are ideal as they quickly sink to the bottom of the tank and are usually high in protein. Shrimp pellets are one of the most popular foods, but fish foods will be quickly eaten too. Small live foods shrimp and fish are popular and make feeding times a little bit more interesting, since they will have to actively hunt their food. If you have any leftover vegetables from your own food, you can drop them into the tank as well.
This will give them something different to eat and also stops your own food from going to waste. You might even want to make your own fish food , to make sure they are getting the best mix of nutrients possible. They help to keep your tank healthier and cleaner through their feeding habits.
They will feed on bacterial or algal blooms, like other algae eaters , and keep the water clean. In terms of pellets this could be a 0. Crayfish prefer water with a neutral pH around 7. You can typically find these kits in the fish section at pet stores, or wherever pool supplies are sold. Avoid adding objects like seashells to your tank, as foreign minerals can throw off the pH of the water.
Change the water in the tank at least once a week. Crayfish generate large amounts of waste products that can be taxing on standard aquarium filtration systems. Stick to mounted tube or sponge filters only. Crayfish like to dig, which can end up jamming undergravel filters.
Incorporate a few natural environmental features. Add elements like rocks, water plants, or lengths of PVC pipe to the bottom of your tank. That way, your crayfish will have a place to play, burrow, or hide away for a while.
Large structures like hollow rocks, gerbil tubes, or enclosed containers are particularly good for making crayfish feel safe, especially during their vulnerable shedding period.
Shut off any surrounding light sources or keep one side of the tank covered to minimize the amount of light that gets in. Crayfish like it dark. Part 2. Give your crayfish a small amount of shrimp pellets once a day.
Pellet-type foods are high in protein and contain all the nutrients crayfish need to grow and develop healthy shells. Crayfish can also have frozen aquarium foods occasionally, such as daphnia, bloodworms, and brine shrimp. Never feed your crayfish live or uncooked shrimp. Shrimp carry diseases that can be fatal to crays. Every now and then, cut some leaf lettuce, cabbage, zucchini, or cucumber into small strips and drop them to the bottom of the tank.
Offerings like peas, carrots, and sweet potatoes are also okay. In fact, treating your crayfish to veggies that are going bad is a great way to kill two birds with one stone. Avoid overfeeding your crayfish. One or two shakes of shrimp pellets or a smattering of vegetables per day should be more than enough to keep your crayfish satisfied. Remove any uneaten portions of food soon after feeding your crayfish.
Anything left sitting at the bottom of the tank will quickly decompose, dirtying the water and making more frequent changes necessary.
Still, keep an eye out for leftovers and scoop them out whatever remnants you find quickly. Overeating can actually be bad for crayfish, as it causes their exoskeletons to become soft and weak. Part 3. Protect your crayfish from other fish. Crayfish do best when given the run of a spacious tank. Crayfish typically only attack sickly fish that sink toward the bottom of the tank. If you discover your crayfish devouring one of its tankmates, chances are it was close to death anyway.
There is a more aggressive option if you plan to keep crayfish in a community tank, to cut half of the inner claw to prevent any nipping or aggressive action with a sterilized knife or scissor. This still allows the crayfish to pick up food. Every few months, carefully cut the tips of their claws to ensure they don't start nipping fins again.
Large species like cichlids and catfish have been known to attack crays, often resulting in the injury or death of one or both creatures. It's not recommended that you keep more than one crayfish in a tank. Crayfish of different species are more likely to try to kill each other.
Provide your crayfish with the right conditions as it molts. Every few months, your crayfish will shed its outer shell to make room for a new one large enough to accommodate its growing body. It will feed on the shell for several days in order to extract the nutrients and minerals it needs to create a strong new layer of armor.
During this time, it will only eat the old exoskeleton. At the time of feeding, you must not forget that Dwarf Orange Crayfish is also an omnivore.
It is also preferable if you give only fleshy items to this Crayfish as it scrapes and eats a lot of algae in a day. It is important to supply sufficient calcium to a Crayfish so that their shell becomes unbreakable and Spirulina supplies this calcium to the Crayfish.
The vegetarian meals make the Crayfish strong from inside, and the insect or worm protein makes the Crayfish active and sporty. A smaller version to the Electric Blue Crayfish, these are the most peaceful and smallest 2. Sufficient hiding place and properly cleaned aquarium are the first and foremost need of this species.
These particular species remain calm yet very active throughout the day. You will hardly see this Dwarf Blue Crayfish attacking other tank mates or destroying the live plants of your aquarium. This tiny Crayfish mainly depends on the food you supply from outside. It is also an omnivore yet it prefers fleshy things to green veggies. Just like the Blue Crayfish, Dwarf Blue one too keeps crawling on the substrate of the aquarium.
Therefore, you need to include the foods which can sink to the bottom of the aquarium faster in its daily diet. Being the tiniest one, it is twice playful in comparison to others. Also, as it tries to consume animal protein more than veggies, it can have an obese problem. Well, it is applicable for its natural habitat but when it is in the aquarium, you can handle this in a better way. For the Dwarf Blue Crayfish, it is needed to make a diet where animal and plant nutrients are balanced.
For example, a meal for Dwarf Blue Crayfish must contain dry algae and plants as well as frozen shrimps and worms. This meal contains Seaweed, Shrimps, and vegetables. Along with that, Frozen Carrot Cube will also be a good choice for this Crayfish.
Vegetables are the source of vitamins in the Crayfish which later converts into energy and helps the tiny species to remain playful for the entire day. The compact meals help Crayfish to intake the essential nutrients which will help them to cope up with their stress. These are known for their color among the fish-keepers, and these are the most expensive ones too.
A matured Red Swamp Crayfish is 12cm in length, and a tank of 80Cm will work fine with these extremely aggressive species. Like other Crayfish, Red Swamp Crayfish is also an omnivore, but sometimes it tends to be cannibalistic which indicates that they eat their own species. It is good to cut any meat from the diet of this particular Crayfish if you are keeping more than one in your tank because they will kill and eat the tankmates.
On the other hand, if you are keeping a single Crayfish setup, it will not be a good idea to cut out the flesh from their diet. There are certain rules which need to be followed strictly for this Crayfish. A Red Swamp Crayfish needs to have a mixture of plant nutrients and animal protein in their daily diet. Along with this, Mosquito Larvae and Frozen Squid will be a good choice for them. Mosquito Larvae and Frozen Squid will supply the essential calcium and iodine to the Red Swamp Crayfish, which will make the shells stronger and shinier.
The flakes will give the energy and essential minerals and keep the Crayfish busy in different activities. As a result, the extra calories will be burnt. A cm or larger tank will be alright for this one as it grows approximately 20cm.
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