crayfish for the guppy tank?

[Nepen]

Sooo I failed when I said I wont be buying any fish anymore.... technically, it's not fish, it's a crayfish that I just bought but oh well....

Bought 2 electric blue crayfish off of ebay today. And too add to my craziness I ordered 12 more fire red sakura shrimps too.

So my question s are, is crayfish ok with guppy or other fish? I have catfish that stay at the bottom. I have other shrimps that will be at the bottom, will they get eaten by the cray fish? Can they live together?

Anya

 

[Nepen]

oh, did a google and people said electric blue will eat the shrimps....



I'll have to put the crayfish in my pond then.

Better yet, is it possible to put the crayfish in my nature pond? I want them to eat the snails, but the pond does not have any pump.

 

[dieselplower]

I have a crayfish in a tank with about 12 goldfish and one large pleco. The pleco has claimed an ornament on one side and the crayfish one on the opposite side. I have not noticed any injuries to my fish. I have read that the crayfish likes shallow water that is high in oxygen. I am sure it can not tolerate cold water very well.

 

[crsublette]

Crayfish are quite water temperature sensitive liking around 60~80*F. Will die quite fast outside of this, but I am told there are species that can "survive" down to 50*F and up to 85*F.

There's a fella that uses crayfish to help clean the waste that drops in his DWC (deep water culture) grow beds, which are essentially huge settlement chambers, except without the vortex effect. He put in cut up segments of PVC pipe for them to claim as their territory. He also has very good aeration in it using a small garden soaker hose as his aeration bubbler.

 

[Nepen]

thanks deiselplower. The ones I'm getting will be baby ones so I think it'll be ok for now. They will probably eat my shrimp some and baby guppy some but that's ok. As long as they dont try to eat my little catfish

I learned that they said not to have it in the heated tank... but I think they are just meant about 80 F~ tank... I kept my tropical tank at 72-75 F so I think they should be fine. I searched around and they are native but if I have it in my pond i'll have to bring it inside during winter. My winter might be too cold.

I also heard that crayfish likes to wander around, so it might not be a good idea to put it in my ground pond... if i put it outside with my other tropical (I do this in summer) my pond is a raised pond so they should be contain in the pond.

starting to think i should cancel the order -_-

 

[Nepen]

Thanks Charles. that's interesting. I thought about putting airstone in my nature pond for them but then it's very shallow and they might wander off, so i'm still thinking about this. I'm getting babies though, they should be fine inthe tank for a bit.... I hope...

ahhh.. I do it all over again, get too excited and buy stuff out of a whim

 

[Dave 54]

Dont be supprised if you start loosing Guppy numbers I'd think the crayfish will be snacking on them

Dave

 

[Nepen]

Thanks Dave. That's what I learned after the fact too. But I think I have about 30+ babies so it might be good. I'll bring the adults in the big pond pretty soon so they should be fine until next winter

 

[Nepen]

So got 4 baby crayfish. It's fun to watch these tiny lobster trying to fight the guppy that's came close to it...and the guppy is like a giant to it lol. Feisty little ones..

They are the same size as my shrimps right now so my shrimps are safe for now.

The baby guppies are the same size as them too, so I don't think they can catch the fish yet but I already saw one trying to eat the snail half it size.

 

[bettasngoldfish]

Are you going to post pictures for us?

 

[Nepen]

Lol it's going to be hard to post pic.. I can't see them from the top at all. I had to look from the bottom up so I can see the crayfish underside only lol. It's very ridiculous position I made myself do to see my animals....

When it's bigger I'll try to get pic

 

[bettasngoldfish]

Are they in a tank or your pond?

I always thought they were cool looking especially the blue ones.

Look forward to pics when they get bigger

 

[Nepen]

Haha got the picture! This one was half the size it is today when it came a bit over a week ago. There is a bigger one but it's always hiding.

 

[bettasngoldfish]

Very cool!

So how many did you get? Do you see much of them?

 

[Nepen]

I got 4 (3+1 extra) from ebay. 1 vanished, only 3 left. One got BIG overnight (felt like it) and now almost as big as the guppy (he was about half an inche when arrived). The pictured one is the second biggest, but with brighter blue.

I didnt see them at all until a few days ago when they are braver.