the age old question: yabbies and community fish

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J

Jackbh241

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 16, 2011
16
0
0
Australia
Hi all,

Firstly im fully aware this is a dangerous idea but I guess im just wondering how dangerous and any stories you all may have.

I currently have a 3ft tank (sorry im unsure of gallons) that is pretty community friendly and nit at all full yet. It has 2x Australian Rainbows 1x desert goby & 1x corydora. It will eventually consist of more rainbows and butterfly.fish etc I suspect.

So im wondering is it a really bad idea to add a small yabbie to the mix (about the same size as the goby & cory 3cm). My main obvious concern is that the cory, goby and yabbie are all bottom feeders. But do you think that if I just kept the yabbie well fed, added plenty of hiding spots and possibly a few really small feeders?

Would love some feedback/ideas :) thanks!
 
Get 3-4 Corys of the same species more first imo, or get rid of the 1 you have. Always stressed when there is just one since they are a schooling fish. I personally would not trust a crawdad with a cory also, so if your heart is set on the crawdad, give the cory up.
 
Putting a predator and prey in an aquarium will cause inevitable harm. Your cories and goby will likely be eaten within the first two months. As for your rainbow, as long as the yabbie follows a diurnal pattern, should be fine for quite a while. However, the second it slips up, or if the yabbie decides to do some night time foraging will eat the rainbow eventually.
 
Thanks for the advice. Pretty much confirmed what I already presumed I guess. Damn :(.
I'm actually not sure what kind they are, they are sold as feeders at my LFS. Are some breeds less violent?

haha and sorry 'yabbie' must be exclusively aussie slang. 'yabbies' are Crayfish/Crawfish/Crawdads :) haha
 
I'm going to have to say its a bad idea. I've never attempted to do this but did a lot of research on it a while back. The general concensus was that they Yabbies would eventually eat the fish.
 
I have successfully kept crayfish (Cherax quadricarinatus) with fish. This is a very non aggressive crayfish though. Its so non aggressive though, that my fish have been known to huddle up against it in its "cave" at night. When I had my clown loaches, they would always gather around it, and even stay right in front of its face. I keep it extremely well fed which I assume helps keep aggression down. Once it outgrew the community tank, (buggers grow fast!) I put it in my cichlid tank. The crayfish and cichlids leave each other alone. During the day the catfish I have like to share a cave with the crayfish. Ultimately, keeping any crayfish with any fish is a risk.
 
I have a crawfish in my tank and it doesn't bother any fish, but when I got it the person who gave it to me had his claws clipped and by the time they grew back.(which I didn't know they would grow back but people who use them as bait do remove claws) just make sure your tank is cioverd very well or it will get out. Make sure it has someplace to hide during the day and feed it pellets that sink. I've never had a problem with my crawfish.
 
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