Help please

[ernie9624]

Can crawdads catch disease from fish? I was going to get some feeder guppies to raise for food for my other fish. I want to put them with the crawdads for now but don't want to endanger them.

 

[Tom500]

I dont think the crawdads would catch anythng off the fish, they will be ok.

 

[msjinkzd]

they won't catch disease from your fish, but if the feeders are unwell and you need to treat they could be sensitive to medications.

 

[black_sun]

For the most part, no they can't. However, fish can be vectors (carriers) for Aphanomyces astaci. Aphanomyces astaci is the fungus/mold that infects crayfish and causes the crayfish plague (a fatal and untreatable disease). And the crayfish can become infected from any vector that has the spores. This is generally only applicable to wild caught fish (wild caught snails, crays, etc), though (there aren't many reported cases of crayfish developing the plague after the introduction of store bought fish). And I assume you'd be purchasing guppies from a store or breeder, yes? You should be fine, I keep feeders in tanks with crayfish for breeding. The only issue I've encountered thus far is that the crays like to eat the feeders themselves, makes breeding feeders a little annoying sometimes lol.