Photo Gallery :: My Louisiana crayfish small tank

[Marcus.85]

So, I sometimes used to feed my res some crayfish larvae (half an inch long). What I think happened is some of them escaped and hid around the tank and grew up, so I had to remove them and set up a small tank for them:





Tank is 20"x12", I had it in my basement along with all the other stuff I put in there.

Inhabitants:
4 juvenile crayfish(procambarus clarkii)
4-5 mosquitofish (gambusia affinis)
snails:
4apple snails (pomacea bridgesii)
10ish helisoma nigricans
6-7 Lymnea stagnalis

Oh and i got both a hang on power filter and a Zoomed 501 turtle filter (actually useless for turtle tanks) running at the same time.

[lotsofpets]

Nice! It looks very natural. Plan on putting any other kind of fish in there?

[Marcus.85]

Nice! It looks very natural. Plan on putting any other kind of fish in there?

Thanks. I don't know about that, it all depends on what I'm gonna do with the crayfish. Obviously they can't live in there forever since they grow up to 4-5 inches and they're very aggressive. I was planning on feeding them to my res (my snapper is no more, she could snap an adult crayfish in half with one bite) or let em breed and use the small tank as nursery for their larvae (to be used as live food for my res anyway).
Or I could put other smaller crayfish(marblecrayfish maybe?)/other animals in there once they're gone.
Any ideas?
Thanks.

[Linus]

A larger Crayfish could injure a RES, just a warning.

[Marcus.85]

A larger Crayfish could injure a RES, just a warning.

I know, I would kill them first, or just remove their claws and let the turtles have fun.
They're grown a lot though, one is practically an adult. Only 3 left, one was eaten and one escaped and died of dehydration.

[Linus]

I actually really wanted to one day maybe get a blue Crayfish. How are they? Yours at least. Are they always hiding or do they come out for a great visual presentation?

[Marcus.85]

I actually really wanted to one day maybe get a blue Crayfish. How are they? Yours at least. Are they always hiding or do they come out for a great visual presentation?

If you mean the Procambarus Alleni they're basically the same as regular lousiana crayfish (procambarus clarkii), maybe a bit quieter and less aggressive. There are also nice colour variations avaliable for the lousiana, like white black or blue I think.
In this particular tank it's alot of fun to watch them since it's unfortunately kinda small, but they do hide often. When they used to be in the res tank they would only come out at night though.
I would advise you against procambarus (either alleni or clarkii) since they eat live plants and fish, are very aggressive towards each other and their offspring and can reach a considerable adult size. I just catched these ones in a pond, i didn't buy them.

If you're looking into setting up a crayfish tank, Cambarellus Patzquarensis Orange would be an excellent choice (I myself gonna get some in a while). They're gorgeous to look at, only reach 2 inches max, and do fine in community and planted tanks.

[Linus]

Ok, thanks for the insight!