Question Regarding Crayfish. Read And Answer Please?

Question

Okay, i think i know enough that crayfish do not need any air pumps, but i think i would want to leave it in the tank just because i think the crayfish would like to play with it, but i have also heard, crayfish would climb up along the air tube and get out of the tank. is this true? if it is, are there any techniques that can be used so that i can still have the air pump and crayfish in the same tank?


Additional Question: For the crayfish experts, you know that there are red, blue, orange, and white crayfish out there. i heard the blue crayfish can live with the white and red can obviously live with the oranges. can blue and red crayfish live together or white and red? also, what other color crayfish are there? and can they get along with other colored crayfish?

and if my fish have the fish desiese "ick" would it affect the crayfish?

Answer 1

Crayfish only need an airpump if you don't have a filter. If you're planning to keep it in a deep tank (more than 2-3 inches of water) you will need to have something for water movement, otherwise the oxygenated water won't get to the bottom of the tank for them to be able to breathe. A filter is a better choice, but if you don't have one, you will need an airstone. (And yes, crayfish will climb airline tubing, power cords, or anything they can to get out of the tank - that's why you should have some type of cover, along with you'll have less evaporation.) You can use a light hood (full plastic piece where you can punch out holes in the back for filter, tubing, etc.), a glass cover (two hinged pieces of glass with a back piece of softer plastic on which you can do customized cutting, or even a screen top meant for reptile tanks.

The problem with keeping multiple crayfish per tank is territoriality. You can set up multiple hiding places, but unless you have a large tank, it's hard to keep multiples in a tank. Also, when one molts, it loses the hard exoskeleton and while it waits for the new one to harden, it's vunerable to attack by the others (and fish). Crayfish usually come in shades of blue, brown, reddish brown, orange, or gray (or mixtures of these colors). Some of the color is determined by the species, and some by the environmental conditions (for instance, grays may become "bluer" in higher pH water).

Normally, I would have said that crayfish are protected by their exoskeleton, so they couldn't be affected by ich, but if I remember correctly, there was an article about crayfish in a southern pond that were affected that came out recently. I'd have to check on the source for that, and if I find it, I'll post it here, but until then, since there was just the one case, I would say to quarantine any crayfish you get (you should do this with any new tank additions, since ich isn't the only thing that could be passed to your fish through the crayfish or its water), and if you get ich in your tank, remove the crayfish before treating the fish in their regular tank. Crayfish are affected by ich medications containing copper, though, so you don't want to have them in the tank if your treating your fish with this, or other medication that can affect invertebrates.

EDIT: I wasn't able to find the article about the crayfish, so it may have been something that was later removed, or revised. So I would go with my original inclination that ich would not affect crayfish, although you may still have other parasites, bacterial, fungal, or viral diseases that might be passed on to/from fish.

Answer 2

Use a lid with a little hole punched to let the air hose through, that way they can't use the air hose to escpae. And yes they are escape artist, I lost one crayfish and found two out of the tank before I learn to be very care with what I put in the tank :)

Yes there are blue, red (some orangy), greenish, black, light bluish white these are the colours I have personally seen and maybe there are other colours I might have not seen. There is no colour compatability like you've explain, red will still fight with red ( and usually result in drop pinchers or worst injuried body that result in death) ,just give them enough space, clean water and lots of hidding space.

If your fish is sick, I recommend that you remove it from the tank with your crayfish. Sick fish are easy target and the crayfish will get him in no time. Actaully you should never put any fish you want with a crayfish, they might look slow but they can catch and eat most small fish when given a chance. I don't think crayfish will get infected by ich as I sometime do feed my crayfish dead fish and they seems fine.

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Answer 3

I don't thin so I just red and white ones.

Answer 4

I cook them with crabboil and hot sauce, UMMMM Good........####