Can I keep a crayfish with my 5 inch green severum and my 3 inch convict cichlid. They have a red one for $4 at the fish store. I just wondered if the cichlids would kill it. I had a crayfish for a few years before by herself in a 5 gallon (She was 3 inches long and loved tuna fish). I made the mistake of leaving her lid open. Now I have a breeding colony of spring peepers in the tank, so could I put the crayfish with the 2 cichlids in a 30 gallon. If not can I put a crayfish in with some bluegill and 2 red zebra cichlids (the bluegill and Red Zebras do surprisingly well together)? That tank is a forty gallon
Crayfish and Convict
- Thread starter fishfreak2009
- Start date
any time i have put crayfish in with cichlids, even smaller convicts, they were intended as food, and that is what they became.
Otto_VonBacon;3556686; said:
Maybe with some cichlids. however i house a blue creyfish with a green terror and pearsie for a very long time. lol however now the creydish is in with some blue gill. but when he was in my cichlid tank, the fish never bother him nor did he bother them. even with small feeds such as neons and danios he never really bother them. though he great at cleaning the bottom of the tank from scraps to crap..lol
You can try it but don't get attached to any of them. There's a chance either the fish or the crays are going to end up as lunch. I've got fish in my cray tanks that haven't been bothered in months. But I can almost guarrantee that if I put one of my favorite fish in there it'd be gone the next day. Not usually a good combo if you're wanting peacefull co-existence 
Just thought they might get along. Would the cichlids get killed by a smaller crayfish or would the kill it? I can give it plenty of hiding places. I'm not too attached to these two fish in particular. They were fish that got along in none of my tanks (I.E. Too mean, too predatory, to warm, no salt, territorial, picked on, mow down plants, turtle food, etc.)
A cichlid would probably eat a smaller crayfish as soon as it saw it. If it could fit in its mouth that is.
I housed a mid-sizied crayfish with a convict of similar size in a 50 gal (6 1/2" cray, 5" cichlid). One morning, after noticing that the cray had molted, I noticed one of its claws sticking out of the convict's mouth. Later into the evening, I saw the convict with the other claw in its mouth. The crawdad did not last much longer after that.
Realize that one will become the food for the other eventually.
Realize that one will become the food for the other eventually.