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So I went to my LFS to pick up some water conditioner this morning, and of course I had to look at the critters. They had somehting new in this time. The tag called it a Blue Freshwater Prawn, and did not list a scientific name for it.
Its a pretty cool looking critter, light colored (almost white), about 3 inches long...not blue at all really.

Does anyone know anything about it? The sales person was unable to tell me anything.

It had small claws on long arms, longish front legs, and small feathery looking hind legs. I don't know what else I can tell you about it.

There were three in the tank (which was small, only 5 gallons maybe) and I know that doesnt mean much at a fish store, but the critters didn't seem to take offense to each other. They actually didn't interact much at all, except to change places around the filter intake and other part where the water flows back in.

I had a couple of those when I was a kid, they're hardy as heck, but they'll eat just about any fish that's not big enough to eat them. they catch them with those long arms and eat them rather quickly. despite how thin the arms are, they're really quite strong. on the other hand, in my experience they are quite tolerant of each other, and any fish they can't eat easily, like pleco's. they're very aggressive about catching prey, and it's kind of fun to watch. just don't put them in a community tank.

proud father of a bunch of baby haps. http://picasaweb.google.com/Sktchy/BABIES

How do you think they would do with my cichild? I have a red zebra cichlid.
That tank is a 20 gallon. Also, if they would work in my 20 gallon, what would I feed it? And would it eat snails? (I was thinking of getting a few mystery snails for that tank, because Rose only eats food that is falling through the water, and sometimes she misses some and I know that the snails would eat these leftovers right up)

The sientific name is Cherax destructor. They are hardy and will tolerate poor water quality. Like most inverts, likes hard, alkaline water. Will eat detritus off the floor, and leftover food. Might eat little fish, and might tear fins of big fish.

Those are sooooooo cool! How do you think one would do in a 5 gallon?

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Actually, pretty much anything you'll see labled as "Blue Freshwater Prawn" in a fish store is Macrobrachium rosenbergii. As stated before, they are highly predatory and do not do well in most community tanks (or, rather, the prawn does well but the tankmates don't). They need good water quality and are sensitive to toxins, and I've heard they can be kept in groups as long as there is only one male.

Cherax destructor is a type of Australian crayfish, also predatory but not quite as dangerous as the prawn.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Ahhhh! I am confused! What is the difference as in shape or whatever in the two species of crayfish?

My other lfs just sells it as "crayfish" or "blue lobster". That is probably why i got confused. The profiles list it as C. destructor.

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Crayfish(or any similar invert that could fall under that label at stores) are best kept in species tank or with small fish you don't care about losing. Like livebearers that need a little population control. Anything a crayfish doesn't eat will eat it. Cichlids will kill crayfish and crayfish will sometimes still try to catch something that's much bigger than them. They may not succeed right away but will sometimes do severe damage to even large fish. I do remember someone saying their blue crayfish killed their oscar. Most cases though the reverse happens where large fish end up damaging the crayfish. Either way there's no winner. You're just better off setting them up in their own tank or not buying one.

Usually a 10g is listed as absolute minimum but we'd have to identify exactly what species we're talking about.

Crayfish are members of the infraorder Astacidea in the order Decapoda, while "Blue Freshwater Prawns", actually just a type of large shrimp and not a true prawn, belong to the infraorder Caridea. True prawns are a different group altogether among the Decapoda, and are not very closely related to crayfish nor shrimp.

Here's what the Blue Freshwater "Prawn" looks like:
http://www.msstate.edu/dept/crec/prawn.jpg

And the common yabby for comparison:
nsw.gov.au/html/popups/images/lge_fr-ya_col.jpg" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.bugsurvey.nsw.gov.au/html/popups/images/lge_fr-ya_col.jpg

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

OK, my lfs has something Wayyy different! The "lobster" looks like it has smaller claws than the one i saw. The prwn is much, much different, and The one at my lfs is kept alone........Thanx for the clarifycation!

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Those could be any number of species. Here's some examples http://www.bluecrayfish.com/different.html For a large listing of all crayfish species and some care info try http://crayfish.byu.edu/