I got a new blue, and everything is going great so far. He is in my 40 with some loaches, a pictus, and some barbs. Plenty of hiding places. Water is hard and acidic, pH of about 6. Ammonia, Nitrite, at 0, nitrate a little high, but working on it. It is already eating shrimp pellets. I really love this thing. I would name him Pinchy, after Rallysman's fallen cray, but that was already taken. I usually don't name my creatures, but I named him Rally, in honor of my friend from Indiana. I am going to get a cowbell and make a cave for him to live in. I will get a Chuck Norris action figure to put outside his house. If you have any advice for the keeping of these fine creatures, let me know. I would post pics but, you know...
New Electric Blue Crayfish. Any advice?
- Thread starter ewurm
- Start date
Your blue cray is Procambarus alleni. You're going to want to set up a separate tank for him. If not, either he will eat your fish (they're diligent and tireless hunters), loaches first, or the loaches and pictus will have at the cray when he's defenseless during his molt. If you have any live plants in your tank, take some good pictures of them now since he will consider all plants food. The shrimp pellets are half the nutrients he needs to be healthy and a fair souce of calcium. Get hime some standard rabbit pellets also. These crays are omnivores and require both animal and plant proteins. Rabbit pellets give him the plant material he needs in the least expensive way. Keep ALL copper away from his tank (including copper cowbells). He will also benefit from a couple of drops of iodine a week into his tank to aid in his molt.
My Blue Yabbie Crayfish eats trumpet snails, shrimp pellets, algae discs, bloodworms. Basically anything that gets near it gets grabbed and carried back to the cave to eat when it chooses to
Have you seen him molt yet, its fricken crazy, like child birth almost, high temps help them molt, i have had some die molting. Just curious, is he native, I have wild caught a couple blues, and the bait shop guy was telling me hes seen white and red also.
My crayfish was hiding for 3 days and not eating. Then last night I saw a shell, and then the rest of the body. I thought he was dead, but apparently they shed their entire shell, legs and pinchers included. I found him under some driftwood, I guess thats the first successful molt.
ewurm;453620; said:
a couple of days ago I checked my 75 and one of my Fiddler crabs was upside down on the bottom of the tank. At first I thought my puffer had decided to snack on one of them, but when I counted, I had one more than I had the day before so I pulled it out. The molt looked really cool, so I saved it. I have had success with my fiddler crabs, but crayfish don't last more than a day. They always end up on their backs pinned against something. My puffer is a mean little one. I'm just glad it was a 1 dollar crayfish instead of one of the blues. I saw one at the LFS and it was gorgeous. But if anyone is getting a 40 dollar meal, it's gonna be me, not my puffer!