Blue Crayfish In A Community?

[TRAGICTRAMP]

My father has apparently just bought a blue crayfish, he hasnt brought it home yet as their is a maidenhead next door to his works, currently he has a highly stocked community tank with

Neon tetras x15-20
yoyo loaches x2
zebra loaches x2
eels - assuming peacock x3
weather loach x1
betta x1
pearl gourami x1
rubber lipped gourami x1
gold gourami x1
rabbit snails x3
bulldog plec x2
elephantnose x1
bolivian rams x2
hillstream loach x3
corydoras x4
talking catfish x1
banjo catfish x1 - always underground
this is what i can think of off the top of my head and this is all in a 125 litre tank with 2 fluval u3's running and 2 large airstones, water parameters are always near perfect, so at present it is ridiculously overcrowded, but they all co exist peacefully and a lot of them are juvies, i can see a disaster before the day is over once he introduces the crayfish, but what is the crayfish likely to snack 1st, the betta is an obvious target with the long fins/tail but stays mainly at the top, the eels are about an inch or two and would occupy the same domain so this is a risk, most of the loaches i assume would be too quick, the gouramis tend to shy away and mid-top.

Has anyone put a crayfish in a community and succeeded?
I honestly think its a recipe for disaster especially with his tank being overstocked as it is.

Ta

 

[TRAGICTRAMP]

This is the tank currently before the cray is introduced and devours the lot!

 

[Tizer]

yep, it will most certainly destroy over half the stock and even more when feed falls to the bottom.

 

[Aquascaper]

And tell him to move the thermometer as its annoying and tilt his heater at an angle to avoid false readings from warm water rising over the thermostat

May as well give him all the bad news at once
(I'm joking of course - apart from the heater)

 

[t4ppo]

Love this tank The neons Look great shoaling

 

[Primous]

RIP to the stock I guess

 

[shoulders]

did the store selling the crayfish not ask any questions about what tank you have and what fish were in there ?

 

[TRAGICTRAMP]

well he turned up with it and at the moment its too small to hurt itself never mind others, im setting up an osaka 155 over the weekend and will take whatever he will part with which will be safe with my betta/shrimp that i have already got to put in their. I forgot to add to that huge stocklist of his 5 xray tetras, The osaka is not going to have any loaches and is going to be mainly, betta/cherry shrimp/cherry barbs/all of my cories/mountain minnows, what of his will be fine with my osakas prospective tenants?

 

[TRAGICTRAMP]

did the store selling the crayfish not ask any questions about what tank you have and what fish were in there ?

Maidenhead aqauatics was the store and they told him it should be alright as it will usually only eat dead or dying fish as its not the quickest but what i have read this is nonsense, http/www.aquaticcommunity.com/crayfish/electricblue.php seems to suggest the same, at the end of the day as we all know they are their to sell 1st and advise 2nd, they obviously get a fair amount of non compatible fish back and resell at 100% profit.