Cobalt Blue Lobster (crayfish)

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JTRG05

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 9, 2009
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Northwest Ohio
The LFS near me brought in a Cobalt Blue, the bright blue crayfish that come from Australia I believe. I've always wanted one, but I fear that I don't have the proper equipment.

What size tank do these guys require? Are these a purely freshwater or brackish species? And I am aware that crayfish are iffy on tankmates sometimes, would larger CA cichlids and a Lace Cat be okay housed with him?

It's not worth risking what I already have, if it doesn't work, it doesn't work.
 
Try to find out it's scientific name. They are many species that have been selectively bred for the 'electric blue' coloration - many of which are native US crays (P. alleni, P. clarkii are a few). If that is the case, they are totally freshwater, and I suggest one or one pair in a 10 gallon tank. When they get large enough, they could be housed with cichlids, but give them plenty of hiding spots becuase they could get killed/eaten when moulting.
I am unfamiliar with the blue crays from Australia so sorry I can't help out with that part. I know they get some monsters out there. Others are very similar to US crays and care should be given in a similar fashion.
 
i picked up a blue lobster about a month ago for my 55 gallon african cichlid tank, and he did alright for the first 3 weeks or so and was awesome to watch, but he didnt last long after that. He got into a few scuffles with my fish and was generally winning, but I came home one day to find him stuck on his back and trying to right himself, and when i attempted to help flip him over i realized that his eye balls were completely missing. Now this was about a week after he molted, so I wasnt sure if the two occurences were related, but I put him into a hospital tank cause he was just sorta lying on the bottom.
In the hospital tank, he just walked around the perimeter of the tank for a week until he eventually died.
Im almost positive that my 4-5" Kenyi "nelson" (the king of my tank) knocked over lobs-lobs (the name given to the lobster) and used that moment of vulnerability to eat lobs-lobs's eyes... I wonder if thats some sort of fish delicacy lol
In retrospect, the lobster was not a good idea... he picked the best nooks for himself in the tank, and guarded them with his monster claws... since his sad departure the dynamics of the tank have definitely improved
 
Lobsters and cichlids should never go together. It' will only end in death for the crayfish.

As for you JTRG05, Lets see some pictures so we can find out the exact species of the crayfish. If I had a penny for every "cobalt blue lobster" there is I would be a millionaire.
 
That's my problem...

It's in the LFS with NO scientific name, its very young (so young I can't differentiate the thing from any other Cray), and no one in the shop knows anything about it. I feel like I have to sit in a small room with a lamp hanging from the ceiling and torture the workers to get a little information out of them!

I just can't find any way to figure out what the heck the thing is, and I know a lot of them are very fish aggressive. Thanks guys, but I can't get enough information on him to help you help me, I'll just pass on this one, its really not worth the risk I guess.
 
If it looks like every other cray then it's probably a us native, if it looks more like a Maine lobster it's more likely an Australian Cherax sp.

The most noticable difference is in the claws, crazycrays.com has some good pictures you can use to compare physiology.

The Cherax need the same things as American crays, just scaled up for adults that can grow nearly 2 pounds. I wouldn't put one in anything smaller than a heavily overfiltered 20, a wide 40 or bigger would be better.. They make as much ammonia as a similar sized goldfish and use a lot more oxygen than you'd think, Aeration and overfiltering are the two keys to keeping them alive for any length of time... That and not keeping them with anything that might think of them as food.
 
If it is a true Cherax species, it should get quite a bit larger than our domestic crayfish species do. Also, true Cherax are far less aggressive than NA domestics, and can be stocked at higher densities without fear of interspecies aggression.

+1 to everything that MadBob said...
 
It's also worth noting that many Cherax species top out between 4-8" the majority of them top out under 1/2 a pound but there are species like C. quadricolor that grow into something you might be inclined to grill and serve with drawn butter ;)
 
Most stores in the us import Hammer's cobalt blue crays (Procambarus sp.) as well as Blue Knight Lobsters (Cherax sp.). The Hammer's should only reach 5" in length and should be fine in a 20 + gal tank with mid size fish, brackish water and plenty of filtration. The cobalt cray is much brighter than the blue knight but similar in body type, other than the size difference that the last 3 posters have noted. the two are offered at liveaquaria.com http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/aquarium-fish-supplies.cfm?c=1075 with pictures.
 
JustJay;3548036; said:
Most stores in the us import Hammer's cobalt blue crays (Procambarus sp.) as well as Blue Knight Lobsters (Cherax sp.). The Hammer's should only reach 5" in length and should be fine in a 20 + gal tank with mid size fish, brackish water and plenty of filtration. The cobalt cray is much brighter than the blue knight but similar in body type, other than the size difference that the last 3 posters have noted. the two are offered at liveaquaria.com http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/aquarium-fish-supplies.cfm?c=1075 with pictures.
Click to expand...

Procambarus alleni doe not requre brackish water. And don't require heavy filtration ether.
 
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