Well, I did it.

[Adrian]

I have owned crayfish, or as I call them, crabs, as this is the term I used when growing up....old habits die hard. Though now I know they are not really a crab. Anyhoo...on to my post.

Today I picked up a cute yet very potent crayfish, (crab). Nothing fancy like the blue, red, white (ahem lobster), though not a lobster either. I have always enjoyed seeing them, as they make excellent scavengers, and are very formidable to fish within the tank. Here's my questions, as I have a few.

1.) What exactly do they eat? Do I need to give them a special diet? I know that in the past, they like meat, so do I need to supplement?

2.) Will they harm my fish? In the past, and if I remember correctly, at night time, when the tanks lights are out, they tend to come out to scavenge. Problem being, while most of my fish tend to head to the bottom of the tank to sleep, this is the prime location of my newly aquired crab. Those pincers are not only for defense, and I know they can catch the unwary fish unawares and make quick work of devouring my inventory of fish. Will this pose a problem?

3.) To make my crab happy, as well as my fish, what would you suggest I do to keep my tank in balance?

Any thoughts or comments will be appreciated. Bear in mind, it is a small, crayfish roughly an inch and a half long. Has two well defined pincers, and is currently hiding amoungst the driftwood that I have in my tank, which, unfortunately, is the same place my kuhli's are hanging out.

[Northernguy]

If you have bottom dwellers like corys or plecos the crayfish will harm them if not kill them.
You can feed it sinking pellets and algae wafers.They do eat fish when they can catch them.

[Oscar_freak12321]

Same as he said. Even at that size they can do quite a bit of damage.

[Red]

They will eat fish they can grab, slower moving fish like bettas gouramis etc, will loose fins or be eaten. Tetras will not, as in they rarely go down to the bottom.

[Sarkazmo]

Most'll recommend that you keep the cray in a tank by itself, like a 5 or 10 gallon. Good luck.

Sark

[aquatic lover]

Caryfish need a variety of foods, feed it mysis shrimp or other frozen foods. Crayfish also like peas.

[jaysee]

Most'll recommend that you keep the cray in a tank by itself, like a 5 or 10 gallon. Good luck.

Sark

10 gallons is a BARE minimum for a crayfish. A 20 is much better. A 5 is out of the question IMO.

I successfully keep my crays with barbs. In a 10 gallon, though, there's not much you could keep it with, except maybe zebra danios (cause they're cheap and easily replacable). There's just not enough space for the fish to get away.