Finding crayfish care easy. All crays similar care? Looking for big, olive cray.

[knifegill]

So I have an unidentified feeder cray who is cute as a button . His care has proven rewarding and he even raises his claws at me through the glass when I sit down by the tank. I live the little guy, but he's just the usual purple/brown. He's molted three times and is growing happily.


I am really interested in some of the larger species. But is the care pretty much the same for most or all crays? Does my success with marbled crays and this feeder cray hint that I can take on something more beastly? I love olive-colored creatures and I've seen some really neat photos of huge olive crayfish. Is there a particularly hardy olive crayfish I should try?

 

[torval]

if you have a cycled tank and know what to feed them cray care is easy. you should have a test kit for gh/kh, and the regular ammonia, nitrate , nitrite, ph etc. get drops. you need a filter and an airstone unless you can get some bubbles from the filter falling in the water or you use a sponge filter.

fed them fish flakes, fresh fish (i use tilapia. make sure there are NO ingredients but fish), hikari crab cuisine, hikari algae wafers, frozen peas (again, NO ingredients but peas).

when he moults, leave his shell in the tank. if he does not eat it after a week remove it. depending on the size of the cray you need about 1 square foot per cray in a tank. make sure each cray has at least 1 hide, and be careful when they moult, as they like to chop each other up at this time. i usually only keep 1 per tank, but if i keep 2 i remove the 1 that didn't moult for about 3 days and simply keep him in a square tupperware container with water from the aquarium and change it every day.

it's better if you keep the kh about 200-250. you can do this by simply adding a teaspoon of baking soda per day until you reach your target. do at least a 10pct water change per week.

it takes a little work, but crayfish are great fun, especially if you find one who is active. ones who hide a lot aren't so fun. also, keeping the tank more simple is better, and keep his hides a little open so you can see him even if hidden. don't expect many plants or fish to survive well with them, but you can try. i don't care if they eat a fish or two so i put em in there. they seem to not like to eat java fern or hornwort.

that's about all i can think of.