Anyone ever just caught any crawdads or crayfish from a local stream, and put them in their established cichlid tank?
Catchem live
- Thread starter Tyminator
- Start date
Don't mix crays and cichlids... cichlids will attack the cray when it molts. And depending on the species of cray, it may actively hunt your cichlids (as opposed to the normal "opportunistic" behavior).
its not a good idea to mix. however, it may be worth a shot to try it out in a species tank. just check on local laws to see if it would be considered illegal due to fishing laws or whatnothow would an electric blue lobster(that's what i bought it as) differ from these. Similar in size, but it didn't mess with anyone? Im guessing its just a type of crawfish.
ive done this just got rid of the claws.they hid for a little bit but then started coming out during feeding time and ate the scraps just make shure there big enough not 2 be food to small and they get ate and have a small hiding place for them.the only things they lost was there wiskers but they grew back and so did the clawhad to trim them again.many times i thought they got ate but was there molting skin floating around.i say all you can do is try it 2 find out the answer worst thing that could happen is you feed your fish a good meal
baytown;3099630; said:
DO NOT DO THIS.
End of story, no debate. We do not physically modify our pets to suit our needs. Either you provide what the animal requires or you do not get the animal. There's no excuse for short cutting the needs of animal or forcing co-existence between species because you're unwilling to get additional tanks, meet all the necessary requirements, or whatever reason you may have.
And while there is debate on whether this practice is cruel in terms of pain (since there are studies that say "yes" and ones that say "no"), this practice can be dangerous. You're creating open wounds that can easily become infected with parasites, fungi, microorganisms, etc... wounds are how things like Shell Rot take hold. Why would you intentionally do something that could very likely become detrimental to the health of your pet?
And all of this aside, Cichlids and Crayfish just shouldn't be housed together. Individual personalities aside (because that calls in a larger spectrum of unmeasurable things), crayfish are usually (species varying) opportunistic scavengers... a sleeping fish to a nocturnal crayfish is an easy meal. And then there's species like P. alleni and P. clarkii (the common "electric blue" and "red swamp") which are active hunters, the fish become meals. And cichlids will eat a crayfish when it molts, and are excellent at getting them even in their hides.
If the OP wants to try it, that's up to them. There's certainly "success" stories when attempting this with certain species of crayfish (larger, more docile species. Species more inclined to more herbivorous diets. etc) and there's a lot more "horror" stories. But all in all, please refrain from suggesting cruel and damaging practices.