Supplementary food for crays

[cbfreder]

I recently got a cray at the LFS. Now he has been eating shrimp pellets, table shrimp from the grocery store, any ghost shrimp that he can catch, and maybe some bloodworms or mosquito larvae that the other fish don't get. But since his diet is so high in shrimp, I was wondering what else you guys feed. I have heard that they like peas. Is any small veggie good? How about old oak leaves? Lettuce? algae pellets or what not?

Brandon

 

[amazonfishman]

I'm not sure about the veggies but they eat nightcrawlers pretty well. Watch out if you have small fish in your tank as well because even though the crawdad isn't that fast it will end up killing your fish if they are small enough ~Trent

 

[Oddball]

Stop feeding it raw/frozen shrimp. Aside from promoting aggression towards conspecifics, there's an enzyme transfer that occurs from feeding crays raw shrimp/crab products that causes a type of dementia (can't remember it off the top of my head). The rest of the menu is OK. Your crays will do fine on a diet of commercial catfish sinking pellets and rabbit pellets. Give these in a 50:50 mix to provide crays with both animal and vegetable proteins as they're omnivorous. Shrimp pellets will give crays some calcium but additional calcium would be beneficial like the calcium found in turtle pellets. Also, 2 drops of regular drugstore iodine per 100 gallons per week will provide crays with the iodine necessary for successful molts.

 

[TankBuster]

Wow, great info on crayfish. I also feed mine a slice of zuccini once a week. Loves it.

 

[Oddball]

The zucchini is OK. But, believe it or not, they would actually derive more nutrients from partly water-born decomposed hay. As bacteria infiltrates the soaking hay, they give off simple sugars from the broken down cellulose in the hay. Crayfish benefit from eating the decomposing hay by metabolizing these simple sugars with little wasted energy from their systems than if they had to process fresh vegetable matter.

 

[cbfreder]

Wow oddball. thanks for that. No wonder my cray has been acting crazy.

Brandon

 

[fat bass]

is it ok to give crayfish dead fish?