Crawfish

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Every now and then we get in interesting hitchhikers in with our feeder goldfish. Today I found a little crawfish about an inch long. I'm bringing him home and setting him up in a 14 as we have nowhere for him to go here at the store. I will post pictures soon.

After we boil them they turn red! We put lots of spice!

I know that was a dumb question but my crawfish in my pond are a dull red color.

The kids have fun in the summer time trying to catch them.

I also found he has a taste for anachris. Is this a good source of vegetation for him?

I have CPO (Cambarellus Patzcuarensis Orange) and Dwarf Crays (Cambarellus shufeldtii). I've also kept feeder Crays. They all hunt at night and are pretty adept at catching Shrimp, Snails, and fish at night. They are very territorial and aggressive. Mean little boogers too.

Anacharas would be an easy plant to tear apart and eat. Won't hurt him - just'll run you some $$$. My blue crays seem to prefer lf and micro swords - and are leaving the anacharas alone. Haven't tried any plants but bamboo/duckweed in with the native crayfish.

Duck weed? Is that the little tiny leaves that float on top of the water? I put some of that in with him and it's all gone now. He has eaten some anachris and eats about one pond snail a day. Is there a way to grow and harvest my own anachris at home instead of buying it?

Well just a little update on my new pet crawfish. He is eating everything in sight. I can't put pond snails in there fast enough. I put about 20 in there last week and they are all gone. All I find are empty or crushed shells. I put 2 minnows in with him, small ones, but so far he has been unable to catch them. He has also eaten just about every plant I put in there, which is good because other than the 2 minnows, all of this food I've gotten for free.

So far he's eaten:
Moneywort
Anachris
Pond Snails
Algae Wafers
Small bits of some kind of aquatic grass I get from work
I've also put duckweed in there but either him or the pond snails are eating it up.

He molted! And he's turning a darker color. How often to do they molt? I know its a sign he's growing so that's a good thing.

Crays are extreme scavengers so they will eat anything they can. It's hard to keep enough live plants growing for them in the warmer weather you can do a tube (40+ gal) outside and grow aquatic plants quickly. I just throw in a couple of mosquito fish I get from the creek so the plants get some ammonia and a water change 1x a week.. I got a 250 gal pond off Cl for $20 and will set it up in the yard when the weather is better for plants.

Thanks for the idea! I'll be searching CL when it begins to warm up for a tub or small pond for growing plants. :)

your story reminds me of the one we acquired. we go to the petsmart down the street for random stuff and the guy we see there alot said he got a batch of mollies in and got a crayfish with it. he said they dont sell it so we got it for free and man! has that thing ever been growin big!!! we feed it 2 algae wafers in am and pm and their both gone by the next feeding time. its molted its shell twice now and its only been 2 weeks since we had it. this thing is getting MASSIVE. gonna put it in a bigger tank. but yeah, its an awesome tank cleaner. all this info is fascinating and very helpful! thanks for putting up the post. if i can get a pic up, i will but its camera shy
-also have plenty of hiding places for the crayfish as it likes to hide under a driftwood tunnel..comes out.. grabs the wafer and hides back under the driftwood to eat.