Crayfish & Plants

[Master Zero]

Hello readers,

I just add two Crayfish to a newly planted tank. They shown no real interest in eating my plants, but I am not sure. Do Cray’s eat plants?

[r3d]

mine did, little buggers uprooted them then ate the roots

[Mr.Kiet]

yes they do eat plants... they probably haven't touch it yet because its still trying to adopt to the new environment. oh yeah, can u post some pics please?

[bfhslilred93]

my cherax blue lobster didnt really eat my plants he just kept diging them up so i had to take them out

[black_sun]

It depends on the species and the plants. Some of my prefer meat matter to vegetable matter and rarely touch plants, others love plants but only certain kinds, etc.

[Master Zero]

Thanks for the replies…

As it turned out, they are using my plants as shelter. I checked behind one of the group of plants a Crayfish was hiding behind, and I saw that it was eating the leaves. I removed it, and it has not touched them since, although it still hides behind it. I’ll keep an eye on them, and if they become a problem, then I’ll remove them and place them in another tank.

My tank is not heavily planted. I purchased some low light plants because I wanted to give plants a try and I have normal tank lights. In two of the pictures, you can see the Crayfishes are well hidden.

http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/7527/dsc00500ba0.jpg

http://img372.imageshack.us/img372/3893/dsc00504oz8.jpg

http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/6008/dsc00505ei8.jpg

The tank’s only inhabitant, besides the Cray’s...

http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/6305/dsc00498tg6.jpg

[Mr.Kiet]

nice pics.

[matt123]

nice cray ! i would give them a little while o establish teritory etc but then they will use your plants to make a little house with lol
mine even used the little plant pots to block one end of his hideout !
got plastics now and they still have a go at them !

[Morledzep]

crayfish need a little meat to eat too.. small feeder fish or drop a hunk of whatever kind of meat your other fish are eating down for them.

[Master Zero]

It interesting because they have not eaten anything yet, my older Crayfish will eat anything I drop in there. I have dropped some frozen krill and they simply walked over it. They seem to be more interested in eating the gravel. I also tried flakes yesterday, but nothing. I guess I’ll allow them more time to play in my plants – but sooner or later they’ll have to eat something...