Crayfish?

Our local Wal-Mart is now selling live crayfish. I was surprised
to see them in the tank at the store. How common is it to have
crayfish in one's aquarium?

One of the crayfish was dying. They've only been there for a couple
of days. I'm waiting to see if any survive.

(I have a zillion questions about them, but I'll google them!)
--
8^)~~~ Sue (remove the x to e-mail)
~~~~~~
"I reserve the absolute right to be smarter
today than I was yesterday." -Adlai Stevenson

http://www.suzanne-eckhardt.com/
http://www.intergnat.com/malebashing/
http://www.intergnat.com/pussygames/

Thusly Suzie-Q Spake Unto All:

Our local Wal-Mart is now selling live crayfish. I was surprised
to see them in the tank at the store. How common is it to have
crayfish in one's aquarium?

Reasonably common. Mostly they're sold under the more impressive name
"lobster". Half a dozen or so species of crayfish are fairly routinely
found in petshops.

One of the crayfish was dying. They've only been there for a couple
of days. I'm waiting to see if any survive.

They're robust creatures, so that Wal-Mart was being successful in
killing them isn't a good sign.

On 2005-11-12, Suzie-Q wrote:
Our local Wal-Mart is now selling live crayfish. I was surprised
to see them in the tank at the store. How common is it to have
crayfish in one's aquarium?

One of the crayfish was dying. They've only been there for a couple
of days. I'm waiting to see if any survive.

(I have a zillion questions about them, but I'll google them!)

They are aggressive and will fight your fish for food, or even us your
fish as food if it can catch it. If you're going to keep it, keep it
with fish it can't catch and fish it won't be competing for food with.


--
"I have to decide between two equally frightening options.
If I wanted to do that, I'd vote." --Duckman

Check out this forum for great info.

Crayfish Addicts Anonymous Forum
http://www.canadiancrayfish.ca/phpbb2/index.php


"Suzie-Q" wrote in message
...
Our local Wal-Mart is now selling live crayfish. I was surprised
to see them in the tank at the store. How common is it to have
crayfish in one's aquarium?

One of the crayfish was dying. They've only been there for a couple
of days. I'm waiting to see if any survive.

(I have a zillion questions about them, but I'll google them!)
--
8^)~~~ Sue (remove the x to e-mail)
~~~~~~
"I reserve the absolute right to be smarter
today than I was yesterday." -Adlai Stevenson

http://www.suzanne-eckhardt.com/
http://www.intergnat.com/malebashing/
http://www.intergnat.com/pussygames/

"Suzie-Q" wrote in message
...
Our local Wal-Mart is now selling live crayfish. I was surprised
to see them in the tank at the store. How common is it to have
crayfish in one's aquarium?
====================
They'll eat small fish and if they escape they'll die and smell real bad
unless you find them quickly. I remember a friend who had one crawl into a
boot in her closet and die. They couldn't find it. No one thought to look
there. I didn't stop by their house for coffee for awhile. ;-)
--
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://bellsouthpwp.net/s/h/shastadaisy
~~~ }((((o ~~~ }{{{{o ~~~ }(((((o

js1 wrote:
On 2005-11-12, Suzie-Q wrote:

Our local Wal-Mart is now selling live crayfish. I was surprised
to see them in the tank at the store. How common is it to have
crayfish in one's aquarium?

One of the crayfish was dying. They've only been there for a couple
of days. I'm waiting to see if any survive.

(I have a zillion questions about them, but I'll google them!)


They are aggressive and will fight your fish for food, or even us your
fish as food if it can catch it. If you're going to keep it, keep it
with fish it can't catch and fish it won't be competing for food with.


They will also uproot plants and push gravel/sand all over. And don't
underestimate their agressivness. They are mean critters. I tossed 6
one inch crayfish in my 110 gal tank as food for my Rock Bass.
Apparently two escaped the wrath of the rock bass cause two months later
I saw a 3inch crayfish emerge and seize a 2 inch catfish! The *******
was impossible to net so I ended up fashioning a harpoon from a needle
and a 3 foot dowel rod. After an hour in a semidark room, I managed to
harpoon it. I was happy until a week later, another catfish
disappeared. Yep, there was a second crayfish, just as big. Harpooned
him too!

Dean

Yeah that's called nature.


"Dean A. Markley" wrote in message
...
js1 wrote:
On 2005-11-12, Suzie-Q wrote:

Our local Wal-Mart is now selling live crayfish. I was surprised
to see them in the tank at the store. How common is it to have
crayfish in one's aquarium?

One of the crayfish was dying. They've only been there for a couple
of days. I'm waiting to see if any survive.

(I have a zillion questions about them, but I'll google them!)


They are aggressive and will fight your fish for food, or even us your
fish as food if it can catch it. If you're going to keep it, keep it
with fish it can't catch and fish it won't be competing for food with.


They will also uproot plants and push gravel/sand all over. And don't
underestimate their agressivness. They are mean critters. I tossed 6 one
inch crayfish in my 110 gal tank as food for my Rock Bass. Apparently two
escaped the wrath of the rock bass cause two months later I saw a 3inch
crayfish emerge and seize a 2 inch catfish! The ******* was impossible to
net so I ended up fashioning a harpoon from a needle and a 3 foot dowel
rod. After an hour in a semidark room, I managed to harpoon it. I was
happy until a week later, another catfish disappeared. Yep, there was a
second crayfish, just as big. Harpooned him too!

Dean

"CanadianCray" wrote in message
...
Yeah that's called nature.


"Dean A. Markley" wrote in message
...
js1 wrote:
On 2005-11-12, Suzie-Q wrote:
snip
They will also uproot plants and push gravel/sand all over. And don't
underestimate their agressivness. They are mean critters.
snip
Dean

But crayfish are so neat. It's a shame they are so incompatible with
fish. I plan on having a Cray tank someday, (the office Cray instead of
the office Betta) but the tank will probably only have one as they are
not entirely compatible with each other either.

What would your recommendation be regarding an office Cray? What type
and what would you feed him? Would a 6g Eclipse suffice? I know I could
google, but when I have an expert's attention, I always ask questions )
--
www.NetMax.tk

For a 6 gallon there are a few of options. You would have to stick with a
dwarf species & there are some nice ones.

Here are some really nice species that would work.

Cambarellus patzcuarensis
http://crusta10.de/index.php?sideid=...lerie_i d=120

Cambarellus shufeldtii
http://crusta10.de/index.php?sideid=...lerie_ id=208

Cambarus dubius
http://crusta10.de/index.php?sideid=...lerie_ id=133
The last species is not tech. a dwarf species but would do ok in that size
tank. The first two species would handle a few crays in that size tank &
they do great with more than one. They don't generally get larger than 1.5".

As far as food goes there are some great commercial foods such as HBH Crab &
Lobster BITES aswell as every day shrimp pellets. No more than one pellet
per day. Aswell as frozen peas, potatoes.

www.Canadiancrayfish.ca

"NetMax" wrote in message
.. .
"CanadianCray" wrote in message
...
Yeah that's called nature.


"Dean A. Markley" wrote in message
...
js1 wrote:
On 2005-11-12, Suzie-Q wrote:
snip
They will also uproot plants and push gravel/sand all over. And don't
underestimate their agressivness. They are mean critters.
snip
Dean

But crayfish are so neat. It's a shame they are so incompatible with
fish. I plan on having a Cray tank someday, (the office Cray instead of
the office Betta) but the tank will probably only have one as they are not
entirely compatible with each other either.

What would your recommendation be regarding an office Cray? What type and
what would you feed him? Would a 6g Eclipse suffice? I know I could
google, but when I have an expert's attention, I always ask questions )
--
www.NetMax.tk

Thanks CanadianCray. I especially liked the C.patzcuarensis. I didn't
realize that you could have more than 1 in a small tank. When moulting,
they don't get preyed upon?

Once I started getting into this, I would have a lot of questions. Can
you point me to a good FAQ http://iz.carnegiemnh.org/crayfish/
http://www.bluecrayfish.com/bcf-faq.html?

... and where can you specify and acquire specific Crayfish? When my LFS
has any, they are quite clueless about what they have, usually calling
them blue lobsters. What size tank would be needed for these, and is it
one per tank only?

I like this one: (euastacus sulcatus).
http://www.shoarns.com/CrayfishGallery.html but at 24cm, I don't think he
fits in a small tank ;~), however I imagine that crays are not selected
by only their color, any more than fish are, so what traits should I look
for?
--
www.NetMax.tk

"CanadianCray" wrote in message
.. .
For a 6 gallon there are a few of options. You would have to stick with
a dwarf species & there are some nice ones.

Here are some really nice species that would work.

Cambarellus patzcuarensis
http://crusta10.de/index.php?sideid=...lerie_i d=120

Cambarellus shufeldtii
http://crusta10.de/index.php?sideid=...lerie_ id=208

Cambarus dubius
http://crusta10.de/index.php?sideid=...lerie_ id=133
The last species is not tech. a dwarf species but would do ok in that
size tank. The first two species would handle a few crays in that size
tank & they do great with more than one. They don't generally get
larger than 1.5".

As far as food goes there are some great commercial foods such as HBH
Crab & Lobster BITES aswell as every day shrimp pellets. No more than
one pellet per day. Aswell as frozen peas, potatoes.

www.Canadiancrayfish.ca

"NetMax" wrote in message
.. .
"CanadianCray" wrote in message
...
Yeah that's called nature.


"Dean A. Markley" wrote in message
...
js1 wrote:
On 2005-11-12, Suzie-Q wrote:
snip
They will also uproot plants and push gravel/sand all over. And
don't underestimate their agressivness. They are mean critters.
snip
Dean

But crayfish are so neat. It's a shame they are so incompatible with
fish. I plan on having a Cray tank someday, (the office Cray instead
of the office Betta) but the tank will probably only have one as they
are not entirely compatible with each other either.

What would your recommendation be regarding an office Cray? What type
and what would you feed him? Would a 6g Eclipse suffice? I know I
could google, but when I have an expert's attention, I always ask
questions )
--
www.NetMax.tk