Feeding live shrimp/crayfish to their fish?

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ceejayt2k

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 8, 2007
338
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Bay Area, CA
Hi Everyone,
Just wondering if anyone has tried growing their own shrimp/crayfish to feed to their cichlids? I want to start one but not sure if it's worth the effort to setting up a tank for them. I looked into marble crayfish (self cloning) and Amano shrimp and wondered if it would work. Also, should I do shrimp or crayfish? Which of the two are healthier for my fish..any suggestions?

Thanks in Advance!
 
I've fed crays for years. I would just go catch them out of the local rivers and streams making sure to follow the local laws. After quarantining for a couple weeks I'd just dump a bunch in. The ones that don't get eaten do a great job of eating the food particles.

They are really good at getting out of tanks though, I've found several months later dried up in other rooms. Ha.
 
Modest_Man;3957577; said:
I've fed crays for years. I would just go catch them out of the local rivers and streams making sure to follow the local laws. After quarantining for a couple weeks I'd just dump a bunch in. The ones that don't get eaten do a great job of eating the food particles.

They are really good at getting out of tanks though, I've found several months later dried up in other rooms. Ha.
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ya i use to feed them to my puffer all the time. and i hear ya modest those things are so clever getting out of tanks. ive had them in tanks with nothing to climb up on and still got out just for me to find them crushed on the floor because my dogs thought they were toys and would roll over them with there backs.
 
I have bazillions of them (crayfish) in my farm pond. I have found that most predator fish love crayfish, but it is nowere near as easy to treat them for parasites in qt then feeder fish.

They are not tollerant of copper containing products and also of Malachite green or Formulan. They are also less tollerant of salt!

Hey modest, what treatment do you do in your quaranteen to assure a parasite free feeder crayfish? If you are not treating them, what is it that you look for on the Crayfish to make the determination that they are parasite free?

I am very curious, because even though I have a nearly unlimited supply of Crayfish for free, I generally lose around 50% during my quaranteen, and I treat them as I would a scaless knike/ loach at half doses and have had similar loses with all the treatments that I listed above!
 
Most visible "parasites" on crays are actually obligate parasites; a harmless species of Branchiobdella.

I simply isolate and feed and observe for a couple weeks. Never had an issue.

I've done lots of searching and never found reference to specific parasites crayfish could carry that can be transferred to fish.
 
Modest_Man;3958840; said:
Most visible "parasites" on crays are actually obligate parasites; a harmless species of Branchiobdella.

I simply isolate and feed and observe for a couple weeks. Never had an issue.

I've done lots of searching and never found reference to specific parasites crayfish could carry that can be transferred to fish.
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Thanks Modest, that is great to hear and will make my life alot easier (as well as help keep the raccoons out of the compost pile where I dump the dead ones!

Hey ceejayt2k, I don't mean to hijack your thread, but I hope that the additional information will also be of interest and use to you.
 
screaminleeman;3958861; said:
Thanks Modest, that is great to hear and will make my life alot easier (as well as help keep the raccoons out of the compost pile where I dump the dead ones!

Hey ceejayt2k, I don't mean to hijack your thread, but I hope that the additional information will also be of interest and use to you.
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Hey screaminleeman, not a problem over here. I appreciate the input and information. I didn't even consider parasites on the crayfish, which is always a good idea to quarintine first. In terms of nutrition, which one has a better nutritional value: crayfish or shrimp? I currently have 3 umbees, a 14", 11", and 6" and I wanted to try feeding them something live.

Thanks Everyone for the input! There is a lot of good information here.:)
 
If you are going to breed them, you might want to look into how fast/easy they breed also. Crayfish are in the most part bigger, and similar in every way so probably more nutritious, but do crayfish eat their young? I know cherry shrimp are tiny, but they breed fast and dont eat their young for the most part. If you have a pond like screaminleeman, then of course its alot different.
 
dont try and breed crays its not worth it my friend tried and he never got it right the male would always kill the female before she developed eggs ah so it was only violent. wat we now do is go to local streams and catch boat loads of the suckers, usually about fifty and were gona feed our fish them now. u can find very small crays like less than a half inch, but if u do want realy tiny ones, go out to a stream now! lol me and my friends went fishing today and we found a few prego crays and my friend took them home to get the females to drop eggs and hatch into little crays but they are cannibalistic and theyre a mess so i think u should try shrimp maybe ghost shrimp i heard they breed quickly, dont eat their young and are a bit bigger than chery shrimp
 
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