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Well... my son has brought his crayfish home from school. He named her "Squirt." I'll post some pics later on.

She is in a 7-gallon tank with a small log and a rock formation that she can hide and burrow under. So far she seems happy, exploring and climbing and hiding. We bought shrimp pellets and drop them into the tank every few days, we've even given her some carrot.

I know these creatures are nocturnal and live on river bottoms and in the shallows of lakes, but does Squirt need the aquarium light on? During the day she has daylight coming in from the windows. In my opinion it mimicks the bottom of a river or the shallows of a lake.

Should we put the light on during the day? If so, should we diffuse it somehow so it's not so bright?

Also, how do we know if she's eating? The shrimp pellets are hard to see on the gravel we have in the aquarium.

Our tank: 45 gallons
7x Cardinal Tetras 7x Black Neon Tetras
7x Glowlight Tetras 2x Ottos 2x Ghost Shrimp 3x Spotted Corys 3x Panda Corys

I dont think they need a light if enough daylight comes through to simulate the natural cycle. If not, i would suggest a small, prefferably daylight, light. Depending on the species, it may need pristine water conditions. You should keep nitrates down to i guess 20ppm, and have hard and alkaline water. Also supplement their diet with calcium enriched foods. Youll know if they eat when they stop in a spot and just pick at a spot in the tank. You could also feed the larger shrimp pellets, and some wafers (H2o Stable).

Good luck with the Crayfish!

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Thanks! I'm not sure exactly what species Squirt is, but we'll be sure to keep the water clean. Our son says she is a "swamp crayfish." She's mostly brown with hints of blue. She's missing two legs and an antennae, which is why our son picked her out. He says her legs will grow back.

We had her in our basement kitchen initially, then we bought a stand and put her in our son's room. Sometimes when we're looking at her she'll come up to the glass and put her claws up. It almost seems as though she's greeting us, meanwhile she's probably looking to pinch us!!

This is when we had her in the basement and one of our cats discovered her. In the first pic you can see her in the background...

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k16/PanClan06/IMG_3317.jpg

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k16/PanClan06/IMG_3316.jpg

Here's sort of a close-up, and a pic of the initial setup in the basement...

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k16/PanClan06/IMG_3319.jpg

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k16/PanClan06/IMG_3318.jpg

She's quite the climber, here she is climbing up the tube from the bubble wand!! We found her climbing up the heater one night but I didn't get a pic. (BTW, the heater is not plugged in; the tank always stays room temperature. I kept it in there just in case.)

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k16/PanClan06/IMG_3323.jpg

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k16/PanClan06/IMG_3321.jpg

Here she is peeking out from the log...

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k16/PanClan06/IMG_3330.jpg

And this is the entire tank setup in our son's room...

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k16/PanClan06/IMG_3334.jpg



Our tank: 45 gallons
7x Cardinal Tetras 7x Black Neon Tetras
7x Glowlight Tetras 2x Ottos 2x Ghost Shrimp 3x Spotted Corys 3x Panda Corys

Regular ol' crayfish by the looks of it. I had 1 in a 10 gallon for a wile, just for the heck of it. She escaped one day and I never found her....until my family moved out of the house 1 month later and found the dried out body under my bed. It never stunk up my room, but my room smells fishy all the time anyway.

"I am who I am, and who I am is who I want to be."
-Kasey Carter

Maybe you could try piling up some of those rocks higher in the tank so that the crayfish can climb out of the water. I don't know if they ever crawl around on land in the wild, but whenever I kept crayfish myself they always seemed to enjoy spending some time out of the water (that might be why yours is trying to climb up the heater).

Actually, one of the crayfish I kept in the past would do something that I would consider to be rather intelligent: it was before I gave the crayfish something to climb out of the water on, so it would grab big "clawfuls" of gravel and drop them in a certain corner of the tank, building up a giant mound that it would use to try and climb out. It was pretty weird, and looking back on that situation I wish I had documented it in some way.

---

I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Hi,
If you have not seen this site yet, you may want to
check it out:

http://www.shrimpcrabsandcrayfish.co.uk/Shrimp.htm?Crabs.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

sounds like squirt is a regular old crayfish...

i had an australian blue lobster at one point and he was in the 55g. he ate all of the fish he could catch... (ie guppies, minnows, goldfish...) he was really good and enjoyed blood worms twice a week(live... but he escaped and died under my bed and i found him the next morning and cured him and kept him on a rope fish net i keep on my wall... moral of the story make sure he cannot get out! she doesnt really need a heater as most crayfish are from the botom of the water (where it is really cold).. she would be able to survive temperatures of 60F no problem... also squirt i am sure would enjoy the ability to exit the water, but it isnt necessary as crayfish are always submerged in nature and never need to exit the water for air or anything...

good luck with squirt...

(ps if you get a fast moving short finned fish it might be able to live with squirt ie zebra danio but try one then add no more than 3...)

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

So far Squirt seems to be doing fine, she molted a few days ago and is already a little bigger!! We're thinking of upgrading her to a 10-gallon tank.

From what I've read crayfish cannot survive out of the water for too long. There is room for her to stick her head out of the water if she climbs, but we've covered up all possible escape routes.

Does anyone have any suggestions for veggies we could feed her that will provide her with calcium AND sink? We tried broccoli a few days ago and it stayed afloat.


Our tank: 45 gallons
7x Cardinal Tetras 7x Black Neon Tetras
7x Glowlight Tetras 2x Ottos 2x Ghost Shrimp 3x Spotted Corys 3x Panda Corys

if it needs to sink rubber band it or tie it to a rock and drop it in and retrieve it with tongs when it is time for a "re-fill"...

but squirt might not eat any veggies so it will just be trial and error...

you might want to try some sort of reptile or snail food as they are calcium fortified...

they also make water supplements for calcium addition for aquatic turtles and etc...

maybe put a limestone or smething in the water to add hardness.. that is really all you need...


\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

Thanks for the ideas.

We actually put a shrimp tail in there last night, she is enjoying it immensely. We won't have to feed her for quite a while, and we're sure the shell of the shrimp will give her the calcium she needs.

Our tank: 45 gallons
7x Cardinal Tetras 7x Black Neon Tetras
7x Glowlight Tetras 2x Ottos 2x Ghost Shrimp 3x Spotted Corys 3x Panda Corys

it sure will, just make sure she eats it within a few days or take it out... it might foul up the water!...

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

Oh it's gone... I actually took a picture of her holding it in her claws, it looked like she was hugging it!!

Unfortunately we threw away her shell when she molted... only to find out afterwards that she would have disposed of it herself. Now we know better for next time.

Our tank: 45 gallons
7x Cardinal Tetras 7x Black Neon Tetras
7x Glowlight Tetras 2x Ottos 2x Ghost Shrimp 3x Spotted Corys 3x Panda Corys

lol yeah.. those shrimp tails will be mighty good for her!

i would say one a week would suffice for her appetite and vitamin needs...

but you can judge her appetite from your observations!

sounds like Squirt is lucky to have such good owners...

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

Yep... all of the pets in our household are spoiled...

Here's Squirt hugging her new friend...

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k16/PanClan06/IMG_3367.jpg

Our tank: 45 gallons
7x Cardinal Tetras 7x Black Neon Tetras
7x Glowlight Tetras 2x Ottos 2x Ghost Shrimp 3x Spotted Corys 3x Panda Corys

what excatly is squirt holding in that picture???

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

The shrimp tail we gave her.

Our tank: 45 gallons
7x Cardinal Tetras 7x Black Neon Tetras
7x Glowlight Tetras 2x Ottos 2x Ghost Shrimp 3x Spotted Corys 3x Panda Corys

o lol!!! i thought you might have put a fish or something in there!!!

so glad squirt has a good family

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

if you really wanted to treat squirt, you could buy it a feeder fish or a feeder shrimp, or a couple, and let it go to town on those

that would be a good zoology lesson for you and your son, haha

-a solidary predator, the firetruck stalks its prey

Get some Kent Marine Super Concentrated Iodine and put it in at the reccomended dose (Very last item on the page). It is .5 of a ml for a 5g tank.

That will help their colors show up and their shells to harden! Good luck!

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