Crayfish!

I'm in the early stages of planning a 20g crayfish tank. I currently keep dwarf cajuns in a couple of tanks, but this time I'd like to get something bigger.

Right now my plan is to setup a plain gravel and rock tank with a bunch of hiding places (mix of PVC and clay pots), a couple of HOB filters I already have, a new heater or two (it'll be in the garage), and ton of floating plants with a decent amount of light (shoplights + daylight CFL bulbs) to help the plants better process the water.

Does anyone here keep not-so-dwarf crayfish? I'm thinking either a pair of electric blue P. Alleni or maybe some marmorkrebs (I'm wary about these on account of not knowing what I'd do with all the babies). Can anyone share their experience in this area?

pbmax

with the marmorkrebs, keep any fish with them and you won't have babies. They come off the tail so small that even guppies will eat the babies.

However I wouldn't worry too much about being over run with them either as they make great feeders for many fish, puffers, turtles etc. I breed the krebs with cherry shrimp in the same tank.


As for the electric blues, the mating is pretty rough. I think a 20 long would be the absolute minimum to keep a younger pair happy. They like their space.

Thanks for the reply!

Yeah, I was thinking that the alleni would be tight in the 20g... unfortunately I'd have to buy a bigger set of shelves to put a 40 breeder in, which puts it outside of how much I'd want to spend on this setup.

That's encouraging information on 'kreb crowd control. I have a bunch of surplus female endlers that should be up to the task. I have a neighbor across the street with larger fish I could utilize for that too, I imagine.

I was thinking I'd keep some sort of shrimp in there with them to keep things tidy.

How long have you had your crays?

I've had the krebs for like a year. Got em for making puffer food

The electrics I haven't bred at home, only at the store and they're rough on eachother for sure.

How big is the tank you keep your krebs in?

I'm doing it in a 20 gallon right now. I've been considering lately to upgrade it to a 55 just to ramp up production.

what do you use for a substrate in that tank? Filtration?

I use lava rock from home depot as the substrate so that it creates lots of cracks for the babies to seek shelter in. Then on top of that is a few inches of cut up pvc pipe that is 1/2 inch, 3/4 inch and 1 inch pipes

I use a mattenburg filter, but a sponge filter would work just as well.

Please forgive my ignorance; what kind of filter is that?

Same type used in this link: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Interesting! Thanks for the link and all the other info.

My brothers got a red louisiana crawfish we found in our local lake. He lost both his claws and wouldve died so we took him home threw him in the guppy tank. Now we get to have a crawfish, he cleans up the bottom and we dont have to worry about him taking out all the fish

He's prett big too. Bout 6" tail to nose

Nice.

How long have you had it? If dwarfs are any indication, it'll only take 2 molts to grow those claws back to a decent size.

About 6 months. Hes only got itty bitty claws right now. They're barely noticable.

Hopefully they stay small!

I certainly hope so! He stalks the guppies that venture to the bottom so Im sure as soon as he gets the chance he'll start eating!

He did today..... Forgot the granite lid piece that keeps him from escaping and found him in my closet with a guppy

One guppy to go, please!

I received three TINY marmorkrebs via aquabid on Wednesday. Since they're so small (not quite 1/2"), I have them in the mystery snail/shrimp half of a divided 10g (5 dwarf cajun crays live in the other half). I think all 3 are still alive today, but who knows... I could only find one of them this morning; there are tons of places to hide in there. Hopefully they'll survive!

Their new 20g tank has been up and running since last week with female endlers and a sponge filter from another tank keeping the cycle alive. At this point it'll be at least a few weeks before I put them in their permanent home since they're nowhere near big enough to fend off the endlers. Here's a photo of the new tank; it has cut up clay pots in it now and a bunch of guppy grass, but I haven't taken an updated photo yet. I plan to eventually replace both sponge filters in the tank with swiss tropicals 4" cubefilters; they're sitting on the table, I just haven't taken the time to put them in the tank and hook them up yet.

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Well my crayfish took yet another adventure around the house today.You really gotta keep those lids on tight with them

Awesome! Keep it away from your AAA card.

My 10g with the dwarf cajuns and the baby 'krebs has tape covering the airline-thick gap along the back to keep them in and there are no gaps between the glass lid and the frame. The new 20g has a tight glass cover that a dwarf shrimp couldn't get past. Plus, I don't think any of my crays are as badass as yours (or ever will be!).

Can you post a photo of yours? I'm interested to see which species you've got.