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I have a few questions about em...

Is a 5 gallon tank fine for them? I've heard they have no ill effects of being kept in smaller aquariums. But are they active? I don't want it to be, just to kinda crawl around.

Any good tankmates for them? I know putting 2 together in a tank usually leads to one dying. So would like a betta work, or should I just put something in there that I shouldn't get attached to?

I know I should make sure theres no hole for it to get out of and make sure everythings covered up well. I'll make sure the lid is kinda heavy too.

What do they like to eat? Could I feed them pond snails and such?


Can they catch diseases like Ick and such?


Any other info you think I should know?


Thanks for the help everyone

crays are cool

a 5 will do, if you get a dwarf cray, but an 8 or a 10 would be better. Stunting doesn't seem to shorten their lifespan, but it doesn't do them much good.
The most important thing is FLOORSPACE and not height, as they aren't big swimmers

A betta would not last a day i'm afraid, the cray are all very good hunters, and a betta is a slow target, and quite tasty i'd bet

I keep mine with a few barbs, she ate some, but these 2 are smart and stay swimming on top.

you need expendable topswimmers if you are going to try fish, and you need to keep the decor low, or the cray will simply climb up and ambush them.

they will eat all sorts of things. they are detrivores, so they DO NOT need a full meat diet.
Earthworms, peas, prawnmeat, algae wafers, snails, fish culls, etc etc etc.

And no, they catch very few diseases, and if they ever do look off colour, its likely parasites or your water quality. Never use copper or dye based drugs, as your cray will likely curl up and die.

HTH


For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Thanks for answering everything, I appreciate it.

Two things to keep in mind when getting a crayfish:

1.) If you are taking good care of it, it will molt quite often - probably once every 7 to 10 days. Leave the entire molted shell in the tank, as the crayfish will happily feast on it for the next day or two.

2.) Your crayfish will molt and grow extremely fast the first few months. Be sure to make sure enough food gets to the bottom every time you feed your fish to assure it gets enough. The older it is, the bigger it will be, and the more food it needs. I failed to account for this increased appetite and my crayfish died about a week ago. Therefore, just make sure there's enough on the bottom for him. Also, flakes aren't enough. My crayfish looooved small feeder fish. As soon as the lights went off, the feeders went to the bottom to dig for food and he ambushed them. They kept him super happy.

Good luck with yours. I loved mine and will be getting a new one very soon.

you can't really use moulting as a sign of good husbandry, they moult according to size and age, as they get bigger, they grow less rapidly, and moult less often. Mine is currently on about 9 months apart, maybe a bit more.

The only ones I have had that moult that frequently (2-10 days) are less than an inch in size.

what species do you have that does it so often? I have only kept the aussie native species, but i'm kinda confused as to how they could be so different... Maybe i'm misunderstanding you post. not entirely impossible

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Sorry, I now realize my post was confusing. My apologies - better proofreading next time!

Well, I had just purchased this cray about a month and a half ago. I'm not sure what species it was exactly. It was very young when I bought it, and it more than doubled in size in that month and a half. I did some research and realized that molting every 7-10 days was normal for younger crays. As they get older and their growth slows a little, the molting would become less frequent.

My post was confusing because I did not mean to intentionally correlate good care with molting. I realize these are, for the most part, independent variables. I merely meant that if he's well fed, he may grow quicker than expected (mine sure did!). More imporantly, I was only trying to warn them that although molting is very normal for many crustaceans, crayfish are so much bigger than shrimp, the molt process is much more visible. The first couple times my cray molted, I thought it was his dead body, and my heart sank. Then I saw him crawl from his cave to protect his shell/food! Just figured I would give as much info as possible on my favorite tank dweller.

Ok, so that brings me to a question... I keep referring to my cray as "him"... how do I know if it's really a guy or not?

you er, you kinda lift its skirt up

can you pick it up safely without it flipping out? If not, get a glass vase or something that will allow you to see underneath its legs.

On the male, you are looking for small nubs, or spurs, where the last set of legs join the body.

On the female, you are looking for sort of round dots on the 2nd or 3rd pair of legs.

This is a piccy of my female, look for the darkish dots on her 2nd pair of legs.

Callatya attached this image:


Last edited by Callatya at 02-Mar-2005 21:41[/font]

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Ha ha ha. Thanks for the help. Mine is such a spaz. He'll never take his eyes off my hand - just spins in circles making sure it stays in front of him. He flips around the tank if I get to close.

Thanks again.