# Freshwater Invertebrates in a cichlid tank?



## xWingman48

Hey All,

Are there any freshwater invertebrates that are good for a mixed cichlid tank?

I have a 30 gallon at work with a breeding trio of Mulitcolor Victoriae, a couple blue rams, some bottom feeders, and a few dithers. I would love to be able to mix it up and add something oddball like a crab, shrimp, lobster, etc.

Most of the freshwater crabs out there aren't really freshwater, and require some out of the water terrain.

Most of the lobsters (i.e. electric blue lobster) get aggressive enough to eat my bottom feeders, and get fairly large.

Also, most of the shrimp out there are small enough that they'll end up getting eaten.

Do any of you know of any good invertebrates that will do well in a fully aquatic, fully freshwater setup? (...and won't eat my fish)

Thanks!


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## pmac

I was wondering the same thing, but after doing a little googling, I'm gonna go out today and look for either a fiddler crab or a red-clawed crab. I've seen people posting videos keeping them with cichlids succesfully. You just need to watch out that there is nowhere for them to escape out of the tank... I'll let you know if it lasts after I've had it in there for a while. Apparently, it's not the fish you need to be worried about, but the crab when it needs to molt.


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## xWingman48

Are you planning on adding some land for the fiddler crab? I've read that they need to be able to get out of the water. They also apparently require "some" salt in their water, so are you planning on adding any aquarium salt?

A friend of mine has a freshwater community tank that's at a pH of 6.5 with no salt at all. He added a fiddler crab, with a small stick to allow him to get out of the water. The crab was dead within a week, so that can't be the best plan.


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## xWingman48

What I would really love to have is a peaceful version of a blue lobster. I actually considered getting one of these until I watched videos of them on youtube catching and eating live goldfish. I'd hate to see them treating my beautiful cichlids like that.

Does anyone know of a peaceful, small, colorful lobster (i.e. crayfish)?


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## smellsfishy1

Yes, there are blue crayfish. They are a very nice smurf blue might I add.
My friend had one and it ate all except 1 fish. It was a sunfish I belive, only because he couldn't catch him. The cray fish did try though.
A male auratus ended up killing and eating the crayfish about 6 months later. Pretty expensive meal. About $20 dollars.
Colorful:yes. Peaceful: depends on the fish in there. Community fish will most likely get picked off one at a time.
So I wouldn't say peaceful but not bulletproof either. 
The auratus is one of the more aggressive cichlids so I don't know if this an accurate gauge of what might happen with you.


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## pmac

I'm making a rocky area where the crab will be able to come and get some air, and I always add a small amount of aquarium salt when setting up a new tank, and after a few water changes I put a little more in, not enough to make the water brackish, I just put it in there because It's supposed to be helpful with stress, etc. I know fiddlers are supposed to be in brackish water, but we'll see how it goes... it's only $4


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## xWingman48

Yeah, I do a tablespoon per five gallons in my tanks with every water change as well.

We actually just found out that my coworkers fiddler didn't actually die. He just molted and he thought the shell was a dead crab. So I guess they do manage to live longer than a week.


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## pmac

haha well thats good to hear :thumb:
I think for some species, even if they're meant for brackish water, it isn't 100% necessary for them to live in it. What works for some, may not work for someone else.

I had a Scat (which lives in brackish water) living in freshwater for 2 years.. (until my oscars ate it, that is) but while it was alive, it seemed to be doing just fine. I've heard of a lot of people keeping fiddler crabs in freshwater with no problems at all. I went to 3 different pet stores (only one of which I really trust what they tell me most of the time), and they all claim that fiddler crabs will do fine in freshwater.


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## Fire_Chair

I had a Giant Wood Shrimp with my victoriae for over a year and never had a problem.


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## a7oneal

When I was a kid, I found my fiddler crab in my brother's room...


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## ashilli48

I've done the crab, crayfish and shrimp experiment before.

Most crabs want some type of access to air. I have seen some really cool contraptions that created a cave of air for the little guys to go in and out of. Too expensive to buy and I never could duplicate a DYI one that was attractive. If the guys can't get to the air they eventually die. Not sure if this is true of all freshwater, but most.

Crayfish. Depends on what is going on. The crayfish will stalk the other fish non stop. He is most dangerous while the others are sleeping, that is when he will pounce. Of course if your cichlids are big enough and aggressive enough (Mbuna, SA or CA) they will have him for lunch especially if he has not found a secret hiding spot to molt.

Shrimp. This all depends on the fish. So far I have seen SA, CA, Mbuna, barbs and brichardi eat shrimp. However, I have some in with my Brevis and various other loaches, etc with no problems. When kept with the Brichardi I throw in a dozen. Within the hour 2 are left and they usually manage to hide under the radar and live out their life in relative peace. Right now ghost shrimp are living in a 55 with 3 Brichardi, 1 Julie, 1 Leleupi, some loaches and clown plecos. There was even a Calvus in there for a bit.

Kind of hit and miss. If you enjoy the behavior of the inverts then most can be had cheap and if you don't mind replenishing your stock then have at it.

Crabs are cheap. Ghost shrimp are 12 for a dollar and most crays are 50 cents to a dollar. Just get the smallest cray you can find(half the size of your smallest fish) and keep an eye on him. When he molts he gets substantially bigger. When he gets too big take him out maybe even trade him back.

Once had a guy recommend pulling off the crays large pincers but that's just mean.


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## pmac

I never thought about making a cave with an air pocket, that's a pretty neat idea! I'd imagine you could make one by putting an air hose into the roof of the cave, or maybe just putting a bubbler underneath it would put enough air into it, not too sure though. I think I might experiment with that a little bit, since I have an extra valve on my air controller that isn't being used by any airstones right now.

Do you think the crabs would be smart enough to find the air pocket in there?


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## brycerb

I buy feeder crayfish all the time. they usually last at least a year before they molt or go into someones cave  . never lost a fish yet, just lots of crayfish.


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