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My friend bought a crawdaddy and she would like to know how to care for it.....she bought some feeder goldfish so far...

I believe it depends on the species as to what size they get and therefore what size tank they need. A 10-20g would be my guess. I had 2 young native crayfish in a 10g for awhile. They like lots of small rocks and decorations to move around and will change the aquascape of your whole tank. Don't plan on spending lots of time carefully setting up everything so it looks perfect because you'll be upset when they decide to move it all around. They also will tear up some plants in their rearranging.
For feeding I wouldn't give them just feeders. Feeder fish have a fairly high chance of carrying disease. If anything to give them some live fish I'd toss some guppies in there and let them multiply. The crays will provide population control and so long as you don't introduce sick guppies to start with you won't have to worry about feeding them sick fish. It would probably be better though if the main part of their diet was sinking foods. I fed mine shrimp pellets along with Crab and Lobster bites. They also liked treats of frozen bloodworms or brineshrimp.

Thanks for the info...She has put it in her tank with some juvenile koi...its a 40g tank so i think he will be fine

Be aware, that if the koi outgrow the crays, the koi may eat them. Crays can usually defend themselves, but not if the kois gang up on them.
Also, don't just feed the crays feeder fish. Crays are very messy eaters, and dead fish bits can clog your filter and pollute your tank. Crays are also omnivorous, not just carnivores. Sinking pellets and foods meant for inverts such as crab cuisine or lobster bits will round out their diet, and these specialized foods will also provide them with necessary calcium for shell-building. Hard-scaping your tank is also a good idea, because as mentioned previously, they will dig and rearrange things. Small caves or broken flower pots (the red clay ones, or similar ceramics) will also be neccesary, as crays like to hide fro most of the day, and they will want a secure place to molt, since they are very vulnerable before their new shells harden.

Hoping that there must be a word for everything I mean...

Be aware, that if the koi outgrow the crays, the koi may eat them. Crays can usually defend themselves, but not if the kois gang up on them.

Bullying in the playground. Sounds like a bit of a russian roulette. Best to give it a tank to itself so it can have a nice life.

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~~~ My fish blow kisses at me all day long ~~~

Yea crays are best in a tank to themselves or like I said above with something you don't really care about and is easy to breed such as guppies. Then the crays are just population control. Otherwise anything small enough gets eaten by the crays and anything big enough to not be food will hurt them.

The koi may attack the crayfish? Possibly, but I doubt they'd be able to do anything. Crays should have plenty of hiding places (read: caves), so they can have a place to take refuge if they should be attacked... but I doubt a koi would be able to do anything to them.

I'd be more worried about the cray attacking the koi (unless it's a tiny cray an' a huge koi, or something like that). Crays are naturally scavengers, but if something is intruding on their territory, they don't hesitate to attack... an' they aim to kill, there usually isn't a second chance.

Having lost a number of fish by way of cray attacks, I can safely say that I would never even consider keeping another cray with a fish that I cared about

HTH

Actually sorry guys its for my silly friend who doesn't seem to care much for animals. If i had the guts, the money and the resources i would confiscate all the cats, dogs and fish that she has and give them a better life. There are a few caves and niches, due to the fact that her"substrate" is made up of fist sized river rocks, the only problem is that there are two common plecos sharing the hidey spots as well. I think that there are going to be some dead plecos...just my luck my tanks are too small for them plus i don't think that she would understand the reasons for me wanting the plecos back.

Last edited by esandbergger at 12-Dec-2005 23:41

Sorry, I didn't realise that an upgrade wasn't going to be possible. Shame your friend has a bit of a cavalier attitude to pet ownership.

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~~~ My fish blow kisses at me all day long ~~~

thanks for caring anyhow appreciate it.....