Marmorkreb Keepers in the House?
- Thread starter Trouser Cough
- Start date
There can be only one! I like that flick; a heavily accented Welshman cast as a Spanish nobleman...how can you go wrong? 
TB, why do you expect these guys to be any more sociable and friendly than your old Blue Boy? He sounded like a typical crayfish to me. I've had lots of crayfish over the years, both imported/purchased and also locally-collected back in Ontario, and I've never met one that wasn't a complete butthead. Regardless of size or species, they all mow down aquarium plants right to the roots...they all spend most of their time waiting for one of their siblings to molt so that they can tear him to pieces...and they all eventually catch the fish kept with them. They're interesting to keep, watch and breed...but you gotta make a lot of allowances.
Is there something different about these new self-cloning ones? Are they more enlightened and socially-evolved and forward-thinking than their dusty old two-genders-required counterparts?
I mean...2 in a bag didn't last together for the day or two it took them to get to your place. The peaceful colony is not off to an auspicious start.
IMHO, the dwarf crays you have with your shrimp are far more appealing.
TB, why do you expect these guys to be any more sociable and friendly than your old Blue Boy? He sounded like a typical crayfish to me. I've had lots of crayfish over the years, both imported/purchased and also locally-collected back in Ontario, and I've never met one that wasn't a complete butthead. Regardless of size or species, they all mow down aquarium plants right to the roots...they all spend most of their time waiting for one of their siblings to molt so that they can tear him to pieces...and they all eventually catch the fish kept with them. They're interesting to keep, watch and breed...but you gotta make a lot of allowances.
Is there something different about these new self-cloning ones? Are they more enlightened and socially-evolved and forward-thinking than their dusty old two-genders-required counterparts?
I mean...2 in a bag didn't last together for the day or two it took them to get to your place. The peaceful colony is not off to an auspicious start.
IMHO, the dwarf crays you have with your shrimp are far more appealing.
I'm going to rethink that driveway comment. I drive a diesel pickup and if that things not drooling some sort of fluid it's because it's empty. I'll find rocks somewhere else. Thanks for the idea though.
TB, why do you expect these guys to be any more sociable and friendly than your old Blue Boy? He sounded like a typical crayfish to me. I've had lots of crayfish over the years, both imported/purchased and also locally-collected back in Ontario, and I've never met one that wasn't a complete butthead. Regardless of size or species, they all mow down aquarium plants right to the roots...they all spend most of their time waiting for one of their siblings to molt so that they can tear him to pieces...and they all eventually catch the fish kept with them. They're interesting to keep, watch and breed...but you gotta make a lot of allowances.
Is there something different about these new self-cloning ones? Are they more enlightened and socially-evolved and forward-thinking than their dusty old two-genders-required counterparts?
I mean...2 in a bag didn't last together for the day or two it took them to get to your place. The peaceful colony is not off to an auspicious start.
IMHO, the dwarf crays you have with your shrimp are far more appealing.
The Mexican Dwarves are bright orange and cool and all that but they're small and never out, ever. I haven't seen one in a couple months though I know there are a ton in the tank.
The idea w/ the Marbled Crays is that it is so unique to be able to hear of and then own a species that didn't exist prior to 1995 that to me they're interesting and I haven't been able to get them off my mind entirely since I first heard they'd made an appearance years ago. It would probably be a lot better for me if that weren't the case! I was just telling a buddy about them today and he said "oh yeah, I've had a bunch of those for months. Yanked a one incher out of an FX6 today"... so they're apparently not as unusual as I had thought. I'm not sure what to expect as to behavior as I've heard everything from how comparatively gentle they are to the same thing that I've seen in other crays; that they're terrorists constantly running around screaming infidel!
I hope to be able to breed enough of them to feed to my ravenous Peacocks. In the interim I've since seen a photo of a Peacock w/ a cray inside it attempting to snip its way out. I'm hoping my fish understand the 'chew forty times' thing but after having watched them eat I'd guess they chew once if they have to.
They'll be something different, something that I thought might be unique until a few hours ago, and maybe something useful in its own way. Odd how my little school of roses reds seem like the happiest fish ever and almost like a dogs the way they come to greet and wiggle around all excited to see me. I have no idea how it was that I had previously fed such happy little guys to other fish. I don't have quite the same view of a terminally pissed off crawdad.
Either way, it'll be a new adventure and if it works out that way I may even learn a little about how well a Peacock can pass a hard shell and claws. You've got to admit... there's an aspect that makes you wonder there.
If the Blue Crayfish was a jerk would the answer not be to keep it alone, or would this not be satisfactory for some reason I do not understand?
Lol, a colony of Rosy Reds is like a happy, peaceful village populated by Hobbits; almost too "nice" to be true...
A colony of crays is like Mount Doom, filled with bloodthirsty Orcs who want only to crush and despoil everything in sight...
Each has its own charm!
I personally wouldn't lose a slot of sleep over worrying about crays clawing their way out of fish after being eaten. I'm sure you remember back in the day when live bloodworms were accused of the same thing. I collected and fed a ton of bloodworms to a bunch of fish back when I was a kid and never had that happen. People just love to latch onto some ultra-rare fluke of an occurrence and then blow it up to be a bugaboo that we are all supposed to fear. Those are the folks who install seatbelts on riding lawn mowers; they can't be taken too seriously.
Looking forward to hearing more about these new guys. If you wake up some morning and find that you have been eaten all the way up to the waist by a squirming, clacking mass of crayfish that is heading for your head...try to at least post an update here before you drop completely off the radar for good...
A colony of crays is like Mount Doom, filled with bloodthirsty Orcs who want only to crush and despoil everything in sight...
Each has its own charm!
I personally wouldn't lose a slot of sleep over worrying about crays clawing their way out of fish after being eaten. I'm sure you remember back in the day when live bloodworms were accused of the same thing. I collected and fed a ton of bloodworms to a bunch of fish back when I was a kid and never had that happen. People just love to latch onto some ultra-rare fluke of an occurrence and then blow it up to be a bugaboo that we are all supposed to fear. Those are the folks who install seatbelts on riding lawn mowers; they can't be taken too seriously.
Looking forward to hearing more about these new guys. If you wake up some morning and find that you have been eaten all the way up to the waist by a squirming, clacking mass of crayfish that is heading for your head...try to at least post an update here before you drop completely off the radar for good...
Cichlids are smart too - my mbuna knew to start with the claws when they went for a cray I tried keeping with them. I would think the more carnivorous peacocks would be able to figure that out too.
lf you keep a blue crayfish you keep it alone . Maybe not at first but eventually you keep it alone.
Looking forward to hearing more about these new guys. If you wake up some morning and find that you have been eaten all the way up to the waist by a squirming, clacking mass of crayfish that is heading for your head...try to at least post an update here before you drop completely off the radar for good...
On their way to get me there would be enough internal squabbling that only one would arrive, dukes up and mad about something. There can only be one!
I set the tank up on 10-27-2023 and never changed the water even once.
Today I rescaped the tank and put in a ton of Mopani, removed all of the white PVC hides and replaced them w/ a less obtrusive black PVC version of the same hides. I loaded the tank w/ more Anubius as they seem to love hiding in it and snacking on it. I had originally bought eight of these IIRC and they immediately started killing each other off. Now I have eleven so they clearly are propagating in the tank but I hadn't noticed that until a week or two ago when I at first assumed that one that I'd bought never grew.
I've got a lot to learn about how to house them for a better survival rate and based on what I've seen so far this will require multiple tanks as they're pretty aggressive and cannibalize their tank mates as happily as they'll snack on an algae wafer.
The water parameters this morning just prior to the drain and rescape:
NH3 / NH4 zero
NO2 zero
NO3 5mg/L
With as much carnage as had been visited on that tank I assumed the numbers might be a little more robust but nope.
The yellow tape lines are a reminder to me not to fill it up as these little hellions strike me as the perfect escape artists.
Today I rescaped the tank and put in a ton of Mopani, removed all of the white PVC hides and replaced them w/ a less obtrusive black PVC version of the same hides. I loaded the tank w/ more Anubius as they seem to love hiding in it and snacking on it. I had originally bought eight of these IIRC and they immediately started killing each other off. Now I have eleven so they clearly are propagating in the tank but I hadn't noticed that until a week or two ago when I at first assumed that one that I'd bought never grew.
I've got a lot to learn about how to house them for a better survival rate and based on what I've seen so far this will require multiple tanks as they're pretty aggressive and cannibalize their tank mates as happily as they'll snack on an algae wafer.
The water parameters this morning just prior to the drain and rescape:
NH3 / NH4 zero
NO2 zero
NO3 5mg/L
With as much carnage as had been visited on that tank I assumed the numbers might be a little more robust but nope.
The yellow tape lines are a reminder to me not to fill it up as these little hellions strike me as the perfect escape artists.
I'd wager this dude can pinch. Haven't had the pleasure of finding out yet.
