crayfish, is almost died

[DewDropPony]

I had to move my crayfish in another tank because my GT's had fry and he was trying to get to them. I moved him in with a convict. I had heard that sometimes cichlids can eat small shrimp and craydish but I had kept my GT's with the crayfish so long and I didn't have a problem. Even when the GT's were breeding they didn't really pick on him. Besides, my crayfish wasn't that small, he was very tough, and my convict wasn't full grown. I had him in there for a day and everything seemed to be going alright and I walk in to look at him and the convict has him up-side-down and is pulling out him legs. I moved him to another tank by himself. He is barrily moving and he's laying on his back. Both of his eyes are missing and so is a tiny part of his body. I don't think he'll live through the night. That's the last time I keep a crayfish with any type of cichlid. If you were reading another one of my posts you'll have noticed I also lost the male GT that had bred with my female.

[jennigypsy]

boy dewdrop...bad night :(...

sorry for your poor crayfish!

[highplainsdrifter]

My experience has been the reverse of yours, basically. The crawdads I have kept usually would eat any of my fish they could catch. Seems logical enough, I just didn't think it would ever happen. These were big, heavily armed crawdads though. That's too bad what happened. So, is it still alive...?

[DewDropPony]

No, he's dead. After he died I gave him back to the con to eat the body. Boy, he enjoyed himself that night. At least the body won't go to waste, if nothing else. Poor crayfish. He was the life of my tank. I'd jump at a chance to get another one, but by itself. They are hard to come by. I got mine from petsmart, when I worked there. Sometimes they ship them in with the feeder fish by mistake. He was the price of the feeder fish that were in the tank with him, 12 sents. Now that I don't work there I'll never know if they are there or not since they are never suppose to end up there in the first place but sometimes do. There's no way to tell. Do you know if you can keep the ones from the local lakes? I live on a lake and sometimes I get them stuck in my minnow traps. Would they be able to survive?

[jennigypsy]

yes..dewdrop..they should be OK..just be sure to keep him alone..(as native fish can either bring a disease to your fish..or visaversa)
..are they really tough to come by?...they're EVERYWHERE around here!...I'm always tempted when i see them...:)

[DewDropPony]

not where I live. For some reason there aren't many pet related stores out here.

[punkypuffer]

at a local grocery store where they sell fresh fish and lobster, etc, they sell crawfish for really cheap. at the store i work at we get about 50 of them and sell them as feeders sometimes :)

[Neon_Tetra]

i dont c em where i live 2 much etiher

[pmipunisher]

im a not knowing person but is a fresh blue lobster something similar or am i thinking of something different??

[highplainsdrifter]

A blue lobster is just a crayfish.
DDPony, try to locate a bait shop or something similar. Most would sell crayfish.

[DewDropPony]

thanks

[punkypuffer]

Originally posted by highplainsdrifter
A blue lobster is just a crayfish.


actually, there are several blue 'crayfish'... some get only a few inches, usually sold as 'crayfish' while some get over a foot long, usually sold as a 'lobster'

[DewDropPony]

yes. Wouldn't that be funny if someone bought a 1 inch ''crayfish'' and in grew into the 1 foot ''lobster''

[pmipunisher]

mines considered a cray fish then its about 4 or 5 inches and hes crazy ill put a gum drop of freezed krill in there and he climbs on the fake plants to grab it and hell walk around with it in his claws for hours

[Chris Garrett]

Punky said to get some at a seafood section(Fiesta on I-35?) at a grocery store but you have to be careful.Don't even think of just washing one off and putting it in your tank.They are packed in bags when shipped, like in 22lb sacks,10-15 per pound.You buy them in rubbermaid type containers and pick them out with tongs.I'm sure some are crushed and you don't know it.

Whatever you do,put in an Iso tank few weeks.The first couple days is when you'll loose the most.Don't let them eat the dead ones and only put 12 or so in a container/Iso tank and you may end up with a few strong ones.When they look weak,go ahead and throw them in a pond,they won't make it anyway.

Blue lobsters?Baloney!If some one can find evidence that they exist,I'll ..........okay, be very surprised.More like dropping it in die or something.I'd do a Google and see what I can find.

They can be fun,they always keep the fish sleeping with one eye open.I just got tired with mine and let him go.I don't know but I feel that one caught from a lake would be a better choice than a seafood section.Less stress,safer handling,less population.Buying one at a good pet store maybe the best answer though.
Chris

[DewDropPony]

Here is a picture of my pinchy.

[DewDropPony]

Here's the con with my GT.

[jennigypsy]

...looks guilty to me....lol

[cich1]

sorry to hear you lost your crawdad(crayfish).i would personaly opt to catch one at the local lake and put it in an isolation tank for a couple weeks changing the water every few days.keep the temp up in the high 70's low 80's with a little aquarium salt.

[bauer23169]

there are such thing as blue lobsters, and there are "imposters." real blue lobsters are from australia and range in price depending on where you are. they go for about $18-$50 depending on size and demand. i have seen numerous at my LFS.
like i said there are also imposters, they are not real blue lobsters, just regular crayfish with a blue hue to them. both max at about 6".

[bauer23169]

and the "imposter" like i said it's just a regular crawfish that has a blue hue. Many LFS's try to get the same price as the real ones so be careful when buying them. i lucked out my LFS gets regular crayfish as feeders and sell them for $1.00

[pmipunisher]

i have an imposter but hes cool i think we got him for like 5 bucks so not that bad he is crazy though

[highplainsdrifter]

I have heard that there are crayfish in Australia that approach the size of a loaf of bread...why are these not available?! I think it would make an increadible pet!

[pmipunisher]

at a lfs over by my house they have a 22 year old arrowana and a 'imposter lobster' that is about 10 inches or so im trying to get mine that big

[barramundi]

Yes we get freshwater crays as big as bread loaves, check these sites out;

http://www.ausemade.com.au/group/f/fauna/lobster/giantlobster.htm

http://www.dpiwe.tas.gov.au/inter.nsf/WebPages/RPIO-4YC3VU?open

We also do have Blue freshwater crayfish, also known as blue marron. They're a genuine critter, there's a tank full of them at my LFS for about A$5 each! They're no big deal here. Funny how that works.:)

[bevoman]

Crayfish are my Fahaka's favorite food. A couple of lfs in San Antonio sell live feeders and I usually get him a couple on the weekend.