Blue Lobster Fw

[ocmsolidsnake]

Hi. Recently i bought a blue lobster from lfs. It is a freshwater fish and Im having trouble figuring out what and how to feed it. I have bloodworms and brine shrimp and i have tried both but he doesnt seem to be eating. How can I go about feeding him?

Not really sure where this should have gone so i figured oddballs was a good place, Feel free to move if necessary.

 

[Loko17]

Actually shouldve gone in invertebrates but thats ok. Blue lobsters are scavengers and yes they are freshwater and they will eat just about anything. One thing you can do is go to your local petstore or somewhere that sells feederfish. You can get some of those and put them in the tank with the lobster, Also you can get black worms and all kinds of live and frozen food. The lobster will eat it. Hope this helped.

 

[jlOisAhoTti]

Aren't they like a bluish colored crayfish? You can try feeding them regular fish flakes, I'm sure they'd eat those.

 

[tophat665]

They'll eat any live fish you put in the tank. Any dead fish too.

 

[raptorrex]

They'll eat any live fish you put in the tank. Any dead fish too.

no they dont!!! well the dead fish bit is true

The blue lobster or Australian Redclaw Crayfish, incidentally the only legal Cray you can keep in the UK, are scavengers, and will on occasion eat ill or dead fish, but they can and do live in community's

as stated they will eat most things, but bloodworm, is not the best thing for them as they can contain large amounts of fat, fresh peas, cucumber, ground pellets, fish and prawn scraps and i give mine a bit of fresh chicken too. it will need lots of hiding places, will reorganise your tank over night, ornaments and all. escape at every opportunity and keep you enthralled and entertained for years. it is said that they should be kept singly or in pairs, but two males will fight, err as can two females. keeping a male and female together really messes with her spawning cycle, so that leaves keeping one Cray, on its own or in a community.

 

[InaneCathode]

To be honest, i wouldnt let a feederfish within a mile of my tank, and mine's empty...

 

[raptorrex]

To be honest, i wouldnt let a feederfish within a mile of my tank, and mine's empty...

this is a very good point, how could you expect a Cray to live any form of peaceful life, if you teach it to kill to get food. and there are plenty of foods, without killing fish, which i must admit seems odd thing for a fishkeeper to do, for me anyway.

 

[§tudz]

To be honest, i wouldnt let a feederfish within a mile of my tank, and mine's empty...

this is a very good point, how could you expect a Cray to live any form of peaceful life, if you teach it to kill to get food. and there are plenty of foods, without killing fish, which i must admit seems odd thing for a fishkeeper to do, for me anyway.

does anyone have any good website links for these? as I have seen them in a few LFS as of late. and was looking at buying one for one of my smaller tanks (with NO fish in)

 

[T1KARMANN]

yes they do kill fish and eat them mainly bottom dwellers but will kill other fish if they get the chance

they should not be kept with fish dont belive everything they tell you in fish shops

 

[jlOisAhoTti]

You can trim there claws though, can't you?

 

[wendywc]

Is this the blue lobster/crayfish in question? http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=128872

 

[raptorrex]

yes they do kill fish and eat them mainly bottom dwellers but will kill other fish if they get the chance

they should not be kept with fish dont belive everything they tell you in fish shops

I take it you keep Cray? if not perhaps you should listen to people who do! if you are going to give advice for gods sake make it correct, or keep it to yourself!

they can be perfectly safe with other fish, mine is kept with cory, plecs, cae, crab, shrimp, pictus cats and many others. as yet i have not had so much as a nipped fin, that's for going on six months, but a crab did lose a leg in one incident. i do know of Cray that are not safe with plastic plants never mind fish. but to brand them all as killers is just plain stupid. there are more than a few members who keep Cray in some sort of communiy, though its often better not to mention it as the un-knowledgeable have a habit of venting their spleens on the subject.
the choice is yours, given the right situation and Cray personality, these animals can live their whole life's in a community and never do more than take very sick or dead fish.

§tudz check your pm i have a site for you, and some people with real personal experiences of Cray not what they have heard.

 

[andywg]

yes they do kill fish and eat them mainly bottom dwellers but will kill other fish if they get the chance

they should not be kept with fish dont belive everything they tell you in fish shops

I take it you keep Cray? if not perhaps you should listen to people who do! if you are going to give advice for gods sake make it correct, or keep it to yourself!

they can be perfectly safe with other fish, mine is kept with cory, plecs, cae, crab, shrimp, pictus cats and many others. as yet i have not had so much as a nipped fin, that's for going on six months, but a crab did lose a leg in one incident. i do know of Cray that are not safe with plastic plants never mind fish. but to brand them all as killers is just plain stupid. there are more than a few members who keep Cray in some sort of communiy, though its often better not to mention it as the un-knowledgeable have a habit of venting their spleens on the subject.
the choice is yours, given the right situation and Cray personality, these animals can live their whole life's in a community and never do more than take very sick or dead fish.

§tudz check your pm i have a site for you, and some people with real personal experiences of Cray not what they have heard.

I'm with T1 on this one, and this is after talking to CFC who had a cray in with fish until it ate one too many expensive fish and went for a chat with the Jardini. The cray he (or at least his mrs) keeps now has a tank to itself shared only with self reared snakehead fry for feeders.

As to another site with people with "real personal experiences", there are those that keep frogfish with other fish for periods of times without problems (as evidenced by the Q&As on WWM), doesn't mean the frogfish is going to have a go at eating the tankmate the moment it has a chance.

Rather than a few peoples' short term personal experiences, why not listen to some experts, such as Matt Clarke writing for Practical Fish Keeping:

Like most other aquatic crustaceans, these crayfish are opportunistic omnivores and will eat anything they get their claws on, from plants, catfish tablets, pieces of vegetable and often fish. They are not safe to be kept in the aquarium alongside fish and will definitely try to eat most fish. Those they can't eat, they will often nip, so mixing them is a definite no-no.

(my emphasis)

One final thought, there is every chance that whatever the OP has is not Cherax quadricarinatus as DEFRA know many people are importing banned species tot he UK for the aquarium and food trade either through ignorance or a lack of respect for the law. PFK mention no one has ever been sold a FW cray and then contacted them and been able to supply a scientific name, so one cannot be very sure even what species is coming in or is bought by someone.

Based on the experiences and writings of experts, I must agree with T1 and advise against keeping such an animal with fish.

 

[T1KARMANN]

yes they do kill fish and eat them mainly bottom dwellers but will kill other fish if they get the chance

they should not be kept with fish dont belive everything they tell you in fish shops

I take it you keep Cray? if not perhaps you should listen to people who do! if you are going to give advice for gods sake make it correct, or keep it to yourself!

they can be perfectly safe with other fish, mine is kept with cory, plecs, cae, crab, shrimp, pictus cats and many others. as yet i have not had so much as a nipped fin, that's for going on six months, but a crab did lose a leg in one incident. i do know of Cray that are not safe with plastic plants never mind fish. but to brand them all as killers is just plain stupid. there are more than a few members who keep Cray in some sort of communiy, though its often better not to mention it as the un-knowledgeable have a habit of venting their spleens on the subject.
the choice is yours, given the right situation and Cray personality, these animals can live their whole life's in a community and never do more than take very sick or dead fish.

§tudz check your pm i have a site for you, and some people with real personal experiences of Cray not what they have heard.

yes i have kept one and for alot longer than 6 months

and i only give advice on things i know something about thats why you dont see me posting in every thread

maybe you should do some more resurch before you give any advice yourself or keep your WRONG advice to yourself

 

[Fella]

You can trim there claws though, can't you?

That's a little barbaric.