# has anyone added a crayfish to there african tank??



## gmoney1585 (Apr 13, 2009)

I was thinking of throwing a crayfish into my 55 with my mostly mbunas. Has anyone ever dared to try this? would my cichlids be torn apart?? would the crayfish be torn apart?? I have a red zebra, bumblebee, electric blue, acei, 2 red top hongi, 2 demosani, giraffe, 2 polits, 2 christmas fulus. will be adding 3 mbambas and 3 flavus shortly. The bumblebee and giraffe will be moved when they get bigger. they are all juvies. Am i crazy for even thinkin about doing this?? Is there a specific crayfish that would work???


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## james1983 (Dec 23, 2007)

the crayfish could get a good nip at the fish if it catches them "sleeping" and maybe kill them if they are small. the fish could also make a good meal out of the crayfish, either by ripping it apart or waiting and catching it while its molting. i wouldnt do it.


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## Dave (Feb 9, 2003)

There a many threads on this topic. Most end in the demise of the crayfish after a molt, other resulted in fish that were injured or killed.


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## Floridagirl (Jan 10, 2008)

Yes, lost mine after a molt. He lasted 6 months, then the fish tore him apart.


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## mthigpen_02 (Dec 29, 2008)

My wife has an obsession with the white and blue crawfish so I have had both. The blue crawfish was consumed by the fish when he molted. The white one has a tank where all fish are smaller than him and I usually lose a fish every month or 2. During the early spring I added some very small crawfish to the Hap/Peacock tank as food.


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## mbargas (Apr 19, 2009)

gmoney1585 said:


> I was thinking of throwing a crayfish into my 55 with my mostly mbunas. Has anyone ever dared to try this? would my cichlids be torn apart?? would the crayfish be torn apart?? I have a red zebra, bumblebee, electric blue, acei, 2 red top hongi, 2 demosani, giraffe, 2 polits, 2 christmas fulus. will be adding 3 mbambas and 3 flavus shortly. The bumblebee and giraffe will be moved when they get bigger. they are all juvies. Am i crazy for even thinkin about doing this?? Is there a specific crayfish that would work???


At one of our local pet shops they put some fairly large crayfish in with some medium size texas cichlids. One by one the crayfish were torn apart.


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## jfly (Feb 17, 2009)

???? what is molting???? *** never been interested in crawdads (crayfish) to me their bait, but,.. hmm baby ones for my peacocks.. not a bad idea


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## ffarmer (Aug 17, 2006)

jfly said:


> ???? what is molting???? I've never been interested in crawdads (crayfish) to me their bait, but,.. hmm baby ones for my peacocks.. not a bad idea


Molting is the way the crayfish grow, much as a snake will shed it's skin a crustacean must "shed" their shell to grow larger. While their new shell hardens they are vulnerable to attack...

Frank


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## jfly (Feb 17, 2009)

ahh.. really well heck i catch them all the time in our pond / creek and never seen an empty shell.. i HAVE picked them up and be soft as putty though.. thanks


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## srook23 (Feb 21, 2009)

Either way, whether the fish win or the crawfish wins...one thing is for sure...there will be blood... :fish:


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## SiNFuLWaYs (May 18, 2009)

I recommend against the cray its a pain in the butt they do attack your fish trhey will clench on to the slow an kinda umpy ones that dont pay attention an they will corner them if possible i had one that killed my auratus it was a great fish i had mixed with a midas an some other americans an africans. but in the end my midas turned it into a snack along with the others all wasleft to see was a claw an some skeleton


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