Aquarium crayfish?

[PotteryWalrus]

So like, I just recently saw some freshwater tank crayfish for sale on ebay and was IMMEDIATELY shot back to primary school in Australia where our class pet was a crayfish ('yabby' in the aussie dialect) in a tank.

It was the highlight of my week when I got to feed the little monster- mostly just fish food, but occasionally the teacher would bring him some feeder guppies and a group of bloodthirsty 7 year olds would crowd around to try and catch him hunting.

So like does anyone have any species recommendations or info about keeping them? I'm assuming that they're not for community tanks because of the above experiences, but it would be nice if there were some brighter colour morphs that look a little prettier than the standard...

 

[dw1305]

H all,

but it would be nice if there were some brighter colour morphs that look a little prettier than the standard...

They are all illegal to own in the UK other than "<Cherax quadricarinatus>".

I think a few people have seen Orange morph Cambrellus sp. in Europe, but they are all banned in the UK.

cheers Darrel

 

[PotteryWalrus]

Okay, yeah, those are the ones I saw on ebay. Does anyone have experience with them?

 

[tiger15]

Crayfish is legal in US and you can buy red, blue, orange and other color crayfish from different origin. I kept an orange dwarf crayfish from Mexico for about a year, and after it died, I gave up and returned to keeping Neo shrimp. Unlike dwarf shrimp which are scavenger, Crayfish are active predator and cannibal, and its hard to maintain a self sustaining population in a small tank. I kept mine alone in a gallon bowl and it ate all the snails, and without any algae eaters left, algae is out of control.

 

[MirandaB]

As Darrel said the only legal species is Cherax quadricarinatus and not even that one in Scotland.
Unfortunately I've seen Cambarellus patzcuarensis 'orange',the Mexican dwarf appearing on ebay,gumtree etc and more worryingly Marbled Crayfish which are a self cloning species.
For Cherax it's pretty much a tank on their own as most fish will become lunch sooner or later and the tank needs to have a secure lid as they will go walkabout if not.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Crayfish is legal in US and you can buy red, blue, orange and other color crayfish from different origin.

You have a lot of native species in the USA, we only have <"one native species in the UK">, the now endangered <"White-clawed crayfish (Austropotamobius pallipes)">. The primary cause of this decline is the invasive non-native Signal crayfish, (<"Pacifastacus leniusculus">), and associated "crayfish plague" Aphanomyces astaci.

In mainland Europe the situation is much worse, as @MirandaB says, with a whole host of escapee exotic species, <"mainly from the USA">.

Unfortunately I've seen Cambarellus patzcuarensis 'orange',the Mexican dwarf

My guess would be that it is <"only a matter of time"> before they appear in the wild more widely.

cheers Darrel