Crustaceans With Sa Cichlids?

[Joller]

has anyone had good or bad experiences keeping things like crayfish or crabs with their cichlids? at the moment i've got a blue acara, tbar, firemouth and sev, all between 3-5"

now i wouldn't mind if a crayfish ended up as dinner but if a crayfish caught and ate one of my fish i would be devistated!

 

[Wills]

Its generally a bad idea for both parties all are at risk really the crab might not eat they but it could tear the fins of the cichlids or even scrape them. I would just not do it, when I have heard about people doing it at some point it ends badly.

Also I have to ask, are you planning an upgrade because those 4 cichlids in that smaller tank could go wrong very quickly. And with 5 inch cichlids I think you need to upgrade asap really.

 

[snowflake311]

That's a main food sorce for many large cichlids in the wild. Mine love to eat snails.

 

[Davo86]

The tank isn't big enough for the fish you have, nevermind anything else,

There are no crabs which are suitable tankmates, Most of which are land crabs and prefer a terrestrium/palladium style setup,
The cray could well catch smaller fish

 

[Joller]

i know its not big enough, and i'm working on what i'm going to do, probably gonna have to re-home the sev soon as its nearly reaching 4 inches, the tbar is probably 2" and the firemough is about 3"

ideally im hoping a good deal on a 5' or 6' tank comes up on ebay

yeah i think i'll scrap the idea. i've got a family friend who has a pond full of blue crayfish and it was temping is all. but i really don't want to harm my fish

 

[Wills]

Cool good decision - if your looking for a 6fter there are some good set ups on Aquarist classifieds at the moment for between £200-£350 just depends on where you are based and how far you can travel.

 

[Joller]

haha, thanks, but i'm in newcastle australia! fortunatley though my job requires driving around the region in a van so i can pretty much bid on anything withing an hours drive and probably be able to pick it up within a few days

 

[Wills]

Ah cool well if its only a matter of time I would consider keeping your fish at present, I mean if you took it to the LFS it could be in a store tank for at least 2 weeks and Im sure your tank is bigger than most store tanks (unless it was a show tank or something).

 

[Joller]

yeah it was in a tank a 3rd the size of mine with about 10 other sevs. although if it gets to a point where it gets too big and i can't upgrade i know 1 fish shop in the area that would be able to house it properly. but hopefully something good comes up in teh area before that happens.