Crayfish fever

[sgbetta]

Show 1 of my orange ghost.....

[kenghua]

Thanks for sharing the pictures.

I plan to keep crayfish in my now spare tank after the demise of my RTG. What's the lifespan of these crayfish?

[Dave57]

Originally Posted by kenghua

Thanks for sharing the pictures.

I plan to keep crayfish in my now spare tank after the demise of my RTG. What's the lifespan of these crayfish?

about 3 years I read.

[globalcookie]

Would such crayfish do well in a 4ft planted tank (non chilled) with shrimps and fishes? I mean, would they be able to get food, since shrimps will also fight for it?

These current colorful crayfishes are too costly to try unless I'm more confident.

[cheng wei jian]

I'm afraid your fish and shrimps might become crayfish food...

[globalcookie]

Maybe. But they will also know how to dart from crayfash, esp dwarf crayfish.

[sgbetta]

Originally Posted by globalcookie

Would such crayfish do well in a 4ft planted tank (non chilled) with shrimps and fishes? I mean, would they be able to get food, since shrimps will also fight for it?

These current colorful crayfishes are too costly to try unless I'm more confident.

Actuali I have a few cherry shrimp to test out keeping with the cray in a 1ft tanks so far ok. I kept endler guppy with all my crayfish too all surviving and breeding too.

[globalcookie]

Yep, I don't think shrimps and fishes will end up being dinner to crayfish unless they are sick and weak to escape. Else natural instinct is to run away when they sense danger.

I am more concern if the crayfish can survive since they are slower, as there are quite a bit of shrimps in my tank, that will fight for food faster than crayfish. Given the price tag, i can't bear to splurge if i'm not so confident of them being able to survive.

Last I kept was CPO. In 2ft tank, i saw them fighting so often. Thus I thought a 4ft planted may be more suitable.

[Dyna]

Some will still end up in the crayfish's stomach, especially at night. I know this because I used to keep my afr guppies with them. But if the tub is big, the guppies reproduction will more than make up for the losses. It is like survival of the fittest. However, you may end up with some of your prized guppies with torn fins sometimes so make sure your best guppies go to a separate tank. That should do it.

[Dave57]

Crayfish dont need chiller, our local water temperature is ok.

Crayfish in planted is not very ideal as there's complains of crays pulling out plants to munch.

Crays with shrimps seem ok. I've seen pictures of crays with Cherry shrimps.

Crays with guppies may end up the crays eating guppies.

You can try out with the common ones which cost much less, they're just as fun to watch.

There's 3 types of common crayfish encountered in Singapore's LFS.
1) Redclaw crayfish, Cherax quadricarinatus. From Australia. This gets bigger and are well know to tear up planted tanks.
Identify by the red on the craws. Blue body with red tips on their craw. Quick identification is by the shape of their craws. Cherax got rounder craws and Procambarus got long sharp craws.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherax_quadricarinatus


2) Red swamp crayfish, Procambarus clarkii. From North America. This is actually the "little lobsters, 小龙虾“ served in restaurants in China/ Chinese restaurants. They're smaller in size compared to the australian red claws. They do get aggressive with one another and bigger ones will eat smaller ones. Provide ample hiding caves if you want to keep a community. The more expensive "ghost" are also P. clarkii line bred for their unique colors. The easiest way to identify them is by bumps/pimples/spikes on their craws. The red-brownish color is the original wild color. There's also blue, orange and white which are still pretty affordable.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procambarus_clarkii


3) Blue crayfish, Procambarus alleni. From North America too. They looked very similar to P. clarkii. But, with "camo" pattern on their shell. They also lack the bumps on their craws. Size and aggressiveness should be similar to P. clarkii. Identify by the camo patterns and smooth craws. Wild color is blue to bluish-brown. They were also bred to different color strains. But, I've only saw blue ones on sale locally.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_crayfish


There are also many other more exotic types which are not commonly found in LFS.