marbled crayfish keeping: what do I need to know?

[J-P]

I have 6 on the way... and was wondering what I needed to know in the terms of care (if they get here).

Are they escape artists? Need a secure lid? They will be going into my 30 gal guppy tank

[Pufferpunk]

Do they come with instructions? My night crawlers came with a whole page of them.

[Pufferpunk]

Do they come with instructions? My night crawlers came with a whole page of them.

[J-P]

no, no instructions that I know of. They have not arrived as of yet, so I can't say if they come with a care sheet or not. Just getting prepared.

[Biff Malawi]

In my experience all crays and large shrimp like to leave home. A secure lid is a must. The parthenageenic nature of these crays make them a severe invasion risk. I know I probably don't need to say it but extra care needs to be taken to malke sure none get into or water system. Be especially careful f you share them with others they may not be as careful as you. All north american species of crays carry a disease which they are immune to but will kill off inverts from other continents. So you must be careful to prevent any cross contamination. I had some once it was a bit wierd when ever I worked with the tank I kinda got creeped out had too get rid of them.

[Flutter]

We have some but our large one is dying. We've left her alive because she has eggs but she isn't doing any better. We bought 2 little ones to replace her. The little that we've found is that we really should be keeping them on a mostly veggie diet, they should be fed more frequent smaller meals, and to provide them with lots of territory. Iodine in the diet can be given in the form of things like nori and shrimp. Or you can buy it and supplement. You can leave their exoskeletons in the tank too, they'll eat them.

I've read that they do like to escape too.

[xrayjeeper83]

everyone says they are escape artists but mine havent tried yet. I house them in my 55 but only keep 35-40g in there and where my air hoses go in it is very tight.

And they eat everything. Love algae wafers, earthworms, flakes, crab/lobster pellets, left over plant trimmings

[Pufferpunk]

Crabs, lobsters, shrimp--all opportunistic feeders--will eat anything they can get into their claws.

[Clowntje]

No tips or tricks but another follower, because i want to start beeding them in the spring for our fahaka.

[geronimo69]

I keep mine in a 55 gallon with some cherry shrimp. They leave the shrimp alone. I feed them cichlid pellets, cucumber, crab food ($4 for the package), flake food, algae waffers and other "bottom feeder" foods. The better food you feed them, the higher in nutrition they will be for your puffers. I don't have a lid on the tank, and don't have a problem with escaping. The water level is right to the top. There are about 15 adults and many many little ones. I also have 2 albino bristlenose plecos in with them. They are never harmed either (about 1"-2").

Let me know if you have other questions...

[Clowntje]

What for filtration is need on there tank? Would a internal filter do enough?

[geronimo69]

What for filtration is need on there tank? Would a internal filter do enough?

I would think so. I use the same filtration as my fish tanks (overfiltration). I run an AC110 on my 55 Cray tank.

[Clowntje]

We dont know AC in Holland/Germany i mainly use Eheim. and have 2 spare internals laying around. I will see if its sufficient or not, i can always seed the pumps in other tanks, or with filtermedia from other tanks. I recently added a internal to my dwarfs tank as extra current.

[geronimo69]

We dont know AC in Holland/Germany i mainly use Eheim. and have 2 spare internals laying around. I will see if its sufficient or not, i can always seed the pumps in other tanks, or with filtermedia from other tanks. I recently added a internal to my dwarfs tank as extra current.

Oh, I apologize. It's an Aqua Clear (hang on back filter). It was already seeded, as I had a group of africans cochlids in the tank before I converted it into a cray tank. Again, I think that an internal filter would be fine.

[Clowntje]

Aaah aqua clear only stumbled once on them but they dont fit our tanks. merci anyway.