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Crayfish

Hi Everyone -

I am contemplating getting a crayfish for my terrarium to help cut down the booming guppy population. I do have a Fire Bellied Toad and Pleco Algae eater that swim around in the water.

Does anyone have experience with crayfish? Would it be safe for the frog or am I asking for trouble?

Thanks.

WildBill
 
I got this from http://www.nativefish.asn.au/spiny.html
hope this help

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Murray cray make spectacular aquarium specimens.  Not usually available through the aquarium trade, capture from the wild is the only real option.  Since minimum sizes apply, you will need a relatively large aquarium to successfully keep crayfish.  Spiny crays are notorious escapologists and most would put Houdini to shame.  Therefore you must ensure that you have a close fitting lid, preferably with a heavy object on top of it, to keep the very strong animal in the tank.  One Native Fish Australia member returned home late one night to find his very large Murray cray several hundred metres down the road happily heading off for who knows where.

Relatively easy to keep, crays can be fed on small pieces of meat, earthworms, small pieces of carrot peel and the occasional piece of green vegetable matter, such a lettuce leaf, that has had its cell structure broken by freezing.  A clean piece of heavy old wood, perhaps a bit of mallee root, will also be appreciated, and chewed on.

Crays will destroy anything in the tank made of plastic and will demolish air stones in quick order.  A simple solution to this problem is to silicone a glass panel diagonally across one corner of the tank, leaving a 1-2 cm gap at the bottom and sufficient clearance at the top to allow for water flow, and to put any air stones etc behind it where the cray can't get at them.  Whilst on the subject of crayfish's destructive habits, you should always handle them with extreme care as even quite modestly sized individuals are quite capable of removing the top of a finger with their pincers.  <Ouch!>
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Shouldn't bother the Plecko algae eater. I work at a Bait shop and I'll tel you you need very cool to cold water to kepe a crayfish. The colder the better, cuz these guys love O2. Be sure to have a lot of airstones. (They don't crush them)/ They will love to eat your guppies and dead ones. These guys are scavengers.
 
Hi Bill,

I would think twice about a crayfish -- or as we call them "crawdeads". They can destroy plants. They could injure the pleco and the frog. If you want a cool fish for the water why not try a South American Leaf Fish? They only eat live food and relish guppies. They are calm, peaceful, fascinating to watch and great hunters.

Bobby
 
i thougth it was always spelled "crawdads" hm..guess i was wrong.
 
its crawdads all right , biggun was just palyin around with the names , crawfish are cannicals as well , so if theres no food then they'll eat eachother , but i usually eat them first
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, they taste like shrimp .
 
Crayfish live in cold water, I would not put them in with your fish and frog.
 
Thanks everyone.

I would rather not lose my frog, so I won't be putting a crayfish in the terrarium.

I like the leaf fish idea. I will keep my eyes open at the pet & aquarium stores around here.

WildBill
 
I once kept a crayfish in with a tank of with some oscars and worried about losing a few fish. They made short work of the crayfish. I still think that a crayfish would likely damage or kill the toad and/or the pleco.
 
  • #10
I had a crawdad once, in with about 6 fish the same size as he was - he ate 3 of them! evil things they are.
 
  • #11
I never heard of leaf fish being cold water(they are South American) but I do know that they are considered quite delicate and suspectible to fungus. They should like warm, soft, and slightly acidic water.

Also, a crayfish would not do much about guppies.
 
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