What's eating the Crayfish?

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jeffreywhunter

Feeder Fish
Sep 30, 2010
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you don't need to know
This is my first post. Looks like a great forum.

I have a 90 Gal freshwater planted aquarium that's been going about 4 months. Doing pretty well. I just got a bunch of crayfish (3 orange, 2 white) about 4 days ago. So far they've been very happy...or so it appears. Last night one of the whites molted and was consumed by something and one of the oranges had all but two legs munched. The other two oranges and one white appear to be fine.

The tank has a number of fish...
8 Lg Tiger Barbs
8 Rainbows (Boesmani and Iran)
1 Lg Redtailed Shark
6 Blue Amurs (Similar size to Tiger Barbs)
6 Lg Siamese Algae Eaters
1 Lg Chinese Algae Eater
I've had an assortment of Ghost Shrimp, of whom only a few survive. I assume the same diners enjoying this.
And finally, what I think the culprits are - 3 4 inch YoYo Loaches. Found them munching on the carcass of the white this morning - all with distended bellies!

So I'm about to trade the YoYo's back in for something else...but before I did, wanted to hear from some experts...

The YoYo's could just be doing what they do best, aggressively cleaning the remains. Could the problem be that the crawfish are eating each other when they molt? I'm a newbie to crays, so any advice would be appreciated...

Thanks...
Jeff...
 
Crays will eat each other when they molt, but crays know this so they hide well from other crays. Really a lot of the fish you listed might be picking off the legs and claws of a freshly molted cray.

How big is your tank, normally it is one cray to a tank unless they are over 30 gallons or so. You need to provide lots of hiding places as crays are territorial and very vulnerable when they molt.

Finally I've yet to meet a cray that doesn't like to grab a fish now and then. Some are good at it, others only get one, once in a while. I've had a cray get a convict cichlid and they are mean little fish so, know that when crays and fish are together they are going to eat each other sometimes :)

Sorry I can't nail it down for you, put a TON of small hiding places in your tank and the crays should do better.
 
Looking at your stocking list, nothing on there is very aggressive, with the most aggressive probably being the siamese and chinese algae eaters. My guess would be the other crayfish ate the molting cray.
 
it is very possible it is the yoyo loaches, they grow very big and a soft newly molted cray would be a good snack, but i concur with most here. it was likely the other crays that ate him/her.
 
After looking over your stock I agree that it was probably the other crays. The fish are scavengers so that is why you saw them eating a dead cray.
 
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