dwarf crayfish...

Magnum Man

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so I'm at the point, with most tanks, that... I seem to be working backwards... it would seem, that we should start a tank, and get our micro fauna established, then begin adding fish, in this way, I assume I'm like most fish keepers, who establish beneficial bacteria ( our only micro fauna ), then add fish... but there are a world of little critters, beneficial to the health of our tanks available... thinking the likes of copods, scuds, even Neocardia shrimp... I have cherry shrimp established in my Hillstream tank, babies become food, but adults are too large, that they have been saved so far...

in tanks that have just slightly larger fish, I'm sure the adult shrimp also become food... I have had the dwarf orange crayfish before... they are tiny, getting maybe twice as big as a cherry shrimp... I'm think I have some tanks, that they would work well in, as well as their cousins, the blue form, ( not bright blue, but more of a wild form, more grey, than blue ) these seem like they would be more camo, than the orange type, so not as much of a target on their backs, as the orange ones...

once a tank is fully stocked with fish, it makes it difficult to add those type of micro creatures, that are beneficial to our tanks... doing so, just becomes "feeding time"...

anyone currently keeping the dwarf crayfish, either the orange, or the blue???


this is kind of interesting...

 
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I kept orange dwarf Mexican crayfish for awhile. They are fun.
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I should mention that when I placed two of the crayfish in the same tank, there was a fight to the death.
 
I had 3 orange ones, in the same tank ( a 55 gallon ) shortly after I started tanks back up, and before installing my RO filter, and was using house softener water, and the tank crashed... I'd like to get a few more...
 
I used to keep and breed several types of dwarf crayfish. The orange one is a breeding form. All other Cambarellus species differ from greyish, brownisch, greenish till blueish. At some point I've stopped keeping them because they bred excessively. I sold all of them at vivaristic events. It took me a while before I had them all gone. At some point, I sold them for ridiculous low prices. That helped me to get rid of them faster.
Same goes for all Procambarus species I've kept and bred. Within the EU some of those Procambarus species are nowadays forbidden.
 
so, I got crabs... er... well to be precise... dwarf crayfish...

I have some CPO orange crays coming again...

but also, and this should be interesting...

least dwarf crays...



mine are supposed to be blue like these...
 
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I've kept them on and off over the years and would still have them if my tanks weren't all planted. They are absolutely brutal to plants, cutting them down with abandon-but never when you're watching. It's like they know they're not supposed to do it. They have one personality: Cranky. And they laboriously climb their way up to the top of something so they can jump off.
Here's a pic of Marcos getting frisky with Imelda:
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well both sets of dwarf cray's arrived... both went into 2 big tanks, and proceeded to disappear... the Cambarellus diminutus are blue / grey, and blend in well, and are the size of neocardia shrimp... I thought the orange ones would be easier to see, being both brightly colored, and slightly larger, but they went into a large jungle tank full of roots, that tank is in an area of the house I don't spend much time, and so far they have eluded. me... once I confirm, one or both are thriving, I'll add a breeding colony of each...
 
This is pretty zoomed, but this is one of my blue Cambarellus diminutus in my dump tank, seems to be getting along fine with the 2 adult dalmation molly's ( they were both next to each other, when I 1st spotted the lil cray... this one is about the size of a medium cherry shrimp...there are 3 in this tank currently, and I'm hoping to get more...
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saw the 1st orange dwarf cray, since I added them... reassuring to see one a couple weeks after adding them... cleaning up the white sand bottom...
 
In the UK crayfish are considered to be an invasive species.

Indeed where I used to live until March last year people were encouraged to report and remove them from the local ponds and lakes.
 

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