The Puffer Forum

Hey Guys

I was wondering if it's possible to catch wild Crayfish in the UK?

I was also thinking of going to the coast and catching some small crabs, would the crabs survive if I kept them in a tank with a few litres of sea water and sand from the beach?

I want to keep them and feed the to the puffers over time

Thanks

in coventry canal i usto put old chicken carcasses from sunday dinner in a crab pot and catch crays most weeks. i wouldnt recommend feeding them to your puffers though. no idea what parasites they may have especially crayfish in the uk as most are not native to this country

I would worry about parasites. Maybe they'd be safe if you froze them for a couple of weeks before feeding them to your puffer, though. I'd at least want to quarantine them for a week.

Yup freeze them first to kill any bacteria and what not.

I believe people are even encouraged to catch the American crayfish that are devastating our native species. There's a brook nearby here that have crayfish in it, but I've never tried to catch any. I do keep a red-clawed crayfish that I've dubbed 'The Beast'... they apparently breed quite readily in captivity if you wanted to start your own breeding programme.

marksrush wrote:I would worry about parasites. Maybe they'd be safe if you froze them for a couple of weeks before feeding them to your puffer, though. I'd at least want to quarantine them for a week.

taureandragon76 wrote:Yup freeze them first to kill any bacteria and what not.

Freezing it will not kill the bacteria, when frozen bacteria goes into a state of suspended animation

I suppose I could boil it as that would kill the bacteria and then feed it cold to the puffer

That's true for fast-frozen bacteria, but slow freezes burst the cells of most types. Bacteria are not the main cause for concern, so much as worms and parasites are.

Nick wrote:That's true for fast-frozen bacteria, but slow freezes burst the cells of most types. Bacteria are not the main cause for concern, so much as worms and parasites are.

I never knew that

What if I kept the crayfish in a seperate tank and treated them for worms etc, would that work?

Possibly, if the worming meds didn't kill the crayfish. They're tough buggers tho, might survive treatments that would kill many other inverts.

and... if they don't survive treatment, freeze them.

As stated above...In my opinion, it's best to set up a tank for breeder crays (buy a Marbled crayfish...hopefully they're not illegal in your country). There are tons of freshwater mussels (some call them clams...whatever) in my rivers here, but I would never dream of putting them into my tanks. I don't know what they've been exposed to (boat gas and oil, parasites, who knows!). You can pretty much control your breeding environment in your tanks, as well as the health of the fish and inverts.