Ever Kept Crayfish?

hey guys, I know it's a scorp forum, but just wondering if you've kept crayfish before?

They're like marine scorpions w/o the tail, awesome in my opinion. They can molt once a month, eat veggies or live fish through ambush, they can also burrow and love to move gravel around/rearrange the tank. I had an electric blue lobster/crayfish and it was one of my favorite pets. Bubbles, as he was called, grew extremely fast, molting once a month (higher temps around 82F speed it up) and was always busy in the tank digging or eating my plants. One of the best parts is that they have great regenerative properties. He lost and arm and already grew a small one on the next molt.

Well, the reason I ask is because I think you guys would be interested in keeping them. They're pretty easy to keep, they're fresh water and don't need super clean water to survive. They can survive with just an inch of water over their heads and a piece of carrot in the water. Just like buying feeder crickets or the such, you can buy them feeder fish and watch them ambush/eat their prey. Need to go somewhere for a week? drop in carrot piece and you're set

Here are pics, the first being my electric blue

During his younger days, a bright blue



Here is a fresh molt from Bubbles


Here is the comparison between the size and color of the new and old Bubbles, freaking awesome!


Bubbles walkin around the tank


Bubbles chilling under drift wood, his favorite spot


Here is another crayfish of mine, he has massive and powerful claws. Drew blood from me too xD



Btw, my electric blue crayfish was a gorgeous site to see when he walked around the tank.
He had perfect antennas that were 6 inches long! When he walked, they would sway around like whips
and just looked cool
So yeah, just sharing with you guys

Pretty cool! I've kept some crayfish from the streams around here before. I've collected tons of them as a kid

thats pretty neat!

never thought about it as a pet though.... dont want to say it but theyre DELICIOUS!

of course not speaking of yours.

RX8 TuRbo wrote:

thats pretty neat!

never thought about it as a pet though.... dont want to say it but theyre DELICIOUS!

of course not speaking of yours.

Lol!
I know what you mean though, they are pretty good xD

Moved to correct forum.

I've kept one before that I caught at a local lake; I thought he was too small to eat. He even molted for me once. My roommate named him Mr. Tasty.

Unfortunately, when we were concerned about the water quality at one point, we stuck an air hose in to make sure there was plenty of dissolved oxygen . . . and he climbed out. We found him a week later dried up on the stairs.

^thats what happens when he tries to escape prison.... dried up and DEAD! xD

hahaha.... wqouldve been nice if you kept Mr.Tasty till he got nice and meaty yummm!


ok ill stop now ! xD

I've kept quite a few crayfish that they had in my LPS when I used to have tons of fish. they were fairly small, and lept to themselves (although curious fish weren't to fond of them lol).


all the crayfish suddenly dissapeared when I added a large plec to the tank.

I wonder why.

A few tetras dissapeared as well lol.

scorpion111 wrote:

I've kept quite a few crayfish that they had in my LPS when I used to have tons of fish. they were fairly small, and lept to themselves (although curious fish weren't to fond of them lol).


all the crayfish suddenly dissapeared when I added a large plec to the tank.

I wonder why.

A few tetras dissapeared as well lol.

lol i'm sure it's because when the crays molt, they are extremely vulnerable and soft, very easy to munch into. In that case, the large pleco probably took advantage. Those tetras may have been eaten by the crays though.

are they WC or..? my friend caught some cray fish and one of them was a darkish colour then it was starting to turn blue. it didnt live very long though because he kept them in a tank full of other fish and he thought he had enough hiding spots but in the end, i guess not as they were all eaten up. only the shells were left behind

Both of my crayfish were store bought, I don't know if they were wild caught though. All I know is that when I caught a few of my other crayfish from a stream, they carried nasty worm-like parasites. I definitely recommend the electric blue crayfish as a pet, just don't keep it with large plecos or large fish such as gold fish, they will eat it! It's pretty neat to see the incredible changes in size and color between molts. They are hardy as heck too, I think I'll do another electric blue crayfish setup

Just wondering...how much do they cost in a store? I used to catch these by the dozens when I was a kid
Just tossed em in a 5 gallon bucket with some pond water, and minnows. Good times....

(Also caught tons of salamanders, painted turtles, gardener snakes, snapping turtles, and frogs)