Crayfish and Cichlids???

Hi all,

Dropped into PetWorld (I think that's what it's called) in Athlone yesterday and saw they had some Electric Blue Crayfish in tanks with mature Cichlids. I asked the main guy whether they would co-habit ok with a selection of +/- 20 maturing 2 year old (mostly) Malawi Cichlids and a couple of 18 month old Rusty Plecos in a 450L tank with lots of rock and he confirmed they would if they were big enough. He had some very small 1-2 inch specemins which wouldn't survive but he also had an 8 month old specemin about 16cm long from tail to the tip of his fully extended claw in a tank with >10 mature Chiclids and very little cover. I also asked if the Crayfish would attack either the Cichlids or the Pleco's and he said they wouldn't unless the fish was attaking it or dying.

Having always wanted some form of shellfish in the tank I parted with my money and "The Terminator" came back to Dublin with me. I introduced him to the tank yesterday afternoon and it's been all action since. He basically keeps exploring the tank and doing laps and freaking all the other fish out, particularly the Pleco's as The Terminator likes the same hidy holes they do.

I'm hoping things will settle down after an initial amount of curiosity but I'm getting a little worried.

Have I been led astray by the fish shop? Do I need to make any special arrangements to accomodate him? Will he feed on the leftover Cichlid food and other scavenging material or do I need to give him a special diet? I've seen conflicting reports on this elsewhere.

I don't want any dead fish nor do I want the most aggressive Cichlids to stress out or kill the crayfish as he is really stunning. All suggesstions or advice most welcome.

I'll try and post a picture and maybe some video later.

Ben

i know the fella your on about, i was in that shop a few weeks ago, he is a bruiser alright!!!
i seen him take a few swipes at cichlids that day when they got to close,
im sure he would certainly damage and fish he got hold of! apart from that i dont really know that much about them though as ive never kept them,
i will leave it to someone more knowledgeable than me..

I wouldn't do it with Africans. Erm I'm no African expert but they are rock dwellers right? When the crayfish molts he is an easy target. Might be ok if he has a good cave but seems risky to me.

I have two electric blue crayfish, They eat anything and they are also pretty good fishermen. Id say your crayfish will spend alot of the time trying to catch your fish.... Mine are in a tank by themsleves and they still explore looking for a meal whenever i enter the room... If i put my hand in they come charging at it.

I actually had a crayfish in my tank with clowns, severums, sailfin pleco, irredescent shark, balas and tinfoil barbs years ago with no problems. He Chased the fish when he could, that's about it.

Hi there,
been trying a few things with Africans,and a crayfish like the bluey one especially.
They are very good fisherman no matter the size of the fish.seen a good sized male venustus missing an eye and half his tail after spending too much time too close to the crayfish.
It is possible to have them together I suppose it depends on the rockwork,feeding???
I personally don't trust them crayfish since they'd eat anything they can catch,unless maybe extremely well fed??
Dimitri

Ive kept a crayfish with mbuna 3 different times and after each time said i wouldnt do it again. Its been about 2 years since the last one, so ive actually listened to myself this time. They start out fine, if one gets too close to the other theyll let each other know about it. but eventually all 3 times ive woken up one morning to the crayfish upside down!

The first 2 times were a big surprise because they seemed well able to take care of themselves, but i did see the last guy in a bit of trouble with the biggest fish in my tank.

Im not going to try it again but it is a shame cos i do like having them, and theyre interesting to watch, but i think when it comes time to shed their shell theyre just too vunerable in a tank with something as aggressive as cichlids.
Someone else might have completely different experiences with them, thats just what happened to me, hope this helps

Hi Dimitri,

I've been keeping the tank well fed with that large bucket of NL Spectrum Cichlid pellets I got from you a couple of months back (hence you haven't seen me since!) and am hoping my nwe friend The Terminator will be content on that diet also. What do you think? Do I need to feed him something special?

SSS, I'll take on board what you're saying given the experience you've had. If The Terminator succumbes to the fish then I won't replace him. Two things which might help me (which you might comment on) are:-

1. The Terminator is almost mature at 15-16cm tail to extended claw so he isn't a push over.
2. I'm going to install a one way in and one way out cave of some sort to give the Terminator protection during his shell molt.

I'm hoping this set of circumstances will enable the fish and the Terminator to co-habit side by side but it's fairly clear I'm going to have to keep a close eye on things all the time.

Ben

16cm is quite big actually, mine were barely over 10cm, if even.
So he probably is big enough to take care of himself after molting. I remember a shop i used to go to in Wales that had one in a show tank with different american cichlids, oscars etc, and he just got bigger and bigger and fish kept going missing. One day he went missing and a few weeks later the guy in the shop told me he was found at the other side of the shop under a shelf, and he was huge. So im guessing when he gets to a certain size, the tables turn and its the fish that need to be worried.
Id love to get one again, maybe the bigger they are the more chance they have

SSS, I'm really hoping this boy is big enough to look after himself. He's actually more like 14cm than 16cm at full stretch but still fairly substantial and appears to well able to handle himself.

After a couple of days of sussing the tank out he seems to have settled down and has commandered the very spot I set up for him. It's a tunnel made from lying two rocks against each other in a tent like fashion and the opening is at 90 degrees to the front of the tank so he looks out into the room and (more importantly!!) we can constantly look into where he is. He still likes to go adventuring now and again but things are definetly settling down. The one strange bit of behaviour seems to be that one of the Pleco's is co-habiting quite peacfully with him and at times lies almost totally on top of the Crayfish which doesn't seem to bother the Crayfish at all.

Anyway, here's the pic's I promised earlier







And here's a video of him having a quiet wander around the tank. Apologies for the quality, it was taken with my phone (as were the photo's) in sunshine so there are reflections from the glass etc. I might try and get a better video at night when the lighting is better.

Regards,

Ben

Very nice crayfish and the tank looks great! hopefully mine get that big.... Id be more worried about him eating the fish than the fish eating him:laugh:. Hope it works out!

Lookin good, he doesnt look outweighed by the fish at all,
id say he's well able to look after himself.
He's really blue too!

Lad's,

I got his size wrong. He's almost 20cm from tail to outstretched claw!! I measured him yesterday as he walked past a ruler on one of his little rambles.

I have to say he has really added a great dimension to the tank. I know it's still early days and things could still go very pear shaped in terms of him either killing fish or being killed by fish but it's looking like he's settled in ok without too much drama for anyone.

Another of his little adventures below.

I still don't know if he needs special food or is happy to pick up the scraps and bits of the NL Spectrum I feed the Cichlids. Anyone got advice for me on this particular issue?

Ben

Feed him some spinnach... no harm in a bit of calcium. I also feed mine muscles the odd time...

really nice pictures! how much are they in general do you know? and are the blue ones more expensive than the red ones?thinking of getting one:)

Wow!
That's a beauty!a very nice male red claw:)
there are some specialized food for crustaceans but the ones I have here get fed on Ken's cichlid pellets and are doing pretty well!I have a nice female red claw here(bluey lobster likd yours).not as big though!
At 20cm it has nothing to fear from fish as long as you give him shelter for moulting(which you already have).
Seen PVC pipes halved in length applied against the glass and imbeded in the substrate as little cave like retreat for crays.
One of our customers has one cray that picks same color stones and stacks them outside that pipe to close the entrance when it retreats inside it.it even,since he treats his fish with leaded bunch of elodea,gathered all the bits of lead that were in the tank in the same manner it did with the stones!
All in all really interesting character but to be kept a close eye on,as mentionned before,opportunistic feeder will eat anything at "claws" range(sorry had to:woohoo:)
Dimitri

UPDATE: Two weeks in and a status quo has been achieved. The Terminator goes on his rambles whenever he wants and wherever he wants. If there is a fish in his way he soon moves it on but other than that the fish leave him alone and visa versa.

The trick seems to be to only purchase one of these Crayfish for your Cichlid setup if they are pretty much full grown and can look after themselves.

Ben