leucistic crayfish

[reptile boi]

Hey everyone,

I was at the ottawa river today with my girlfriend and some other friends searching for crawdads/crayfish just for fun and i stumbled upon one that seems to be either albino or leucistic. I have never seen this before (only the usual grey ones with the ocassional blue or red phased crawdads), so i brought it home and i was wondering if anyone could give me some info on taking care of this little guy and keeping it alive. Would it be alright if i left it in my cherry shrimp tank? (regular 10 gal with lots of java moss and a decent HOB filter).


Thanks,
Ben

[Laura]

I would have thought it would eat the cherries.
Here's some info on housing them http://crayfish.byu.edu/faq.htm
And some more.
http://www.canadiancrayfish.ca/library.htm
http://www.austmus.gov.au/factsheets/crayfish.htm
http://www.shrimpcrabsandcrayfish.co.uk/Shrimp.htm?crayfish.htm~mainFrame

[featherfin]

crayfish do tend to be rather aggressive, i would'nt put it in with cherry shrimp. i think you caught it while it was moulting if you look in one day and see what seems to be a dead crayfish in the tank leave it, because the crayfish needs to eat the shell to regain lost calcium. ( make sure it's not actually dead  )

[dpatte]

I have kept them in all my tanks, with almost any kind of fish, and never lost any fish. They need flat rocks to burrow under.


But none lasted more than a year.

[Quatro]

I picked up a feeder crayfish years ago and started my first 10gal tank.  Now I have 9 tanks.  Go figure.   

That first one turned out to be a female and laid eggs about a month later.  I ended up with over 100 babies.  Prior to the babies she escaped one day and I found her walking down the hallway; put her back in the tank and she was fine.  After the babies hatched I moved her over to my brothers house into another 10gal and she escaped again.  Found her a day later but she was dried out.     Some of the babies survived which I sold but kept one at my brothers house.  It grew to about 3 or 4 inches and turned a brilliant blue (mother was brown).  It lived almost 3 years.

The first bit of advice I have is to make sure the top is secure and has no gaps.  These guys will find their way out of anything.  Second, I always felt guilty about keeping them in a 10gal.  Larger footprint is the way to go.  A 30gal or 40 gal breeder tank (36" x 18") would be great.  As for companions, I saw the first one take the tail off a feeder goldfish, but the blue baby lived with 2 white cloud minnows for 2 years.

A crayfish will devourer any live plants.  My neighbour had a heavily planted 10gal and I gave him one of the 1.5" babies.  Under a week and the tank was bare.  Give them plants to eat but your cherry shrimp will not stand a chance.  Mine never liked algae waffers but loved shrimp pellets.

Go for it.  They make great pets.

[reptile boi]

hey,

thanks for all the info guys!


anyone have any tips on raising young ones?


featherfin:
nope, this one was not moulting, it had a pretty tough/hard shell when i caught it yesterday and it is still pretty white as we speak.



thanks,
ben

[Nerine]

please post a pic!! I'd love to see it!!

good luck and I agree with the above posts...they are EXCELLENT escape artists!! make sure that there aren't ANY gaps lol they will find a way out if they can
I knew someone who had a reptile screen on top their tank and that worked!

[plecoL83]

pics pics pics pics.

[Fishnut]

I don't know if I skimmed over this fact, but crayfish thrive in cold water.

Albinos have red eyes, lucistic have the light pigment but have black eyes.

I can't wait for the pics!