crayfish as carnivorous scrap eaters?

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Fire Eel
MFK Member
Feb 19, 2009
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i have an oscar, jack dempsey, and a poly. gobi in my tank. when they make mess i was thinking of adding a naturally carnivorous bottom feeder to eat any body parts/guts, or uneaten pellets that my other fish dont.

are crayfish the way to go? or will they eat eachother, the fish, or get eaten by the fish? im thinking about the common cray that u can find in any stream anywhere. its brown or red.

thanks.
 
very well might get eaten by the fish, actually i am going to say will get eaten, depending on size. If not it will spend all of its time in hiding
 
aw man, i was hoping they wouldn't..

the oscar is 4" and the jack is a little over 2" now. the gobi is skinny and without the means to crush the shell but i do know oscars eat most anything smaller than them. and it won't be long term if i decide to go cray... are there any alternative carnivore bottom feeders?
 
since your fish are pretty small you might be able to do it for now, i did it for a while but oneday i came home after removing the crayfish's hide and found him in pieces on the bottom, but they did get a good meal, you can try it out worst case you give your fish a really good meal. and pleco's are always good for eating stuff on the bottom
 
yea right now i got 3 plecos that eat the byproduct. but my plecos are herbivores and i know its going to kill them eventually, so i want something that naturally eats carrion etc.
 
I've tried it with Oscars, Polychromis and arowana and it works, just use crays of a sensible size.
As long as you have a refuge for them to hide in it should be ok. My crays all come out at night when the lights are off and pick up all the bits the fish leave behind.
Give it a go, what's the worst that could happen?
 
thats a great idea
 
DubaiPond;3161688; said:
what's the worst that could happen?


Crayfish kills fish. OR. Fish kills crayfish. :popcorn:

I wouldn't do it. My old beast of an Oscar loved to eat crayfish, not sure if he had a taste for them at 4" though, still might be a tad small. Theres a good chance the cichlids will peck out the eyes of the crayfish, and/or kill it once it molts. I doubt you'll be able to create too many hiding places for the crayfish that a 2" jack dempsey can't squeeze into.

Plus theres also a chance of the crayfish killing/harassing/injuring/stressing your fish. They're not just scavengers, but predators too.

You know...there are carnivorous species of plecos. Though, i'm not sure how compatible they would be with your herbivorous plecos. The carnivorous ones tend to be territorial in general and often aggressive toward other plecos.

A pictus catfish might be a good scavenger for you.

edit:
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=230251
 
Those combinations won't work in the long run. Oscars (at least the ones I've seen and my own) loooooooove crayfish. But cichlids in general, seem to be pretty good at rooting out crayfish and picking them apart (size pending) and/or waiting for the crayfish to molt and then doing so.

And on the flip side, crayfish can pretty adept at catching larger, awkwardly shaped or fast food if they are a species that's carnivorous or hunts. For example:

picture.php


This lil' Procambarus clarkii of mine ate a whole group of Silver Dollars, one by one.

But anyway, here lies another problem with picking up a crayfish, you need to know what species you are getting first. Size and tank requirement issues aside (i.e. since you have cichlids, your pH may be too low/too high for crays), some species require diets that are more high in vegetable matter than meat matter, so you're scraps wouldn't be a good diet in the long run. And most crayfish (in general) will require a very varied, mixed diet and meat scraps won't cut it. Crayfish need nutrients found in plant and meat matter, and should have additional supplements for things like Calcium.

That aside, you'll need to take into consideration a species temperament. Some are highly aggressive and will kill off tankmates (either from hunting or just because), and your fish aren't very large so that should be a concern.


Anyway, without going into a much longer discussion, perhaps try some catfish? I have a bunch of different "hoplos", aside from their regular foods they love to suck up the scraps the other fish don't eat.
 
Oscars eat everything that fits or can be made to fit in their mouth.

I've heard stories of Oscars eating armored catfish and spitting out the scales.
 
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