Electric Blue Lobster???

LoneWolf1Seven

LoneWolf1Seven

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Jan 4, 2004
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I went to a pet store the other day and they had what were called Electric Blue Lobsters in there fresh water section. I asked the lady who was working there about them and their requirements (water conditions, food, etc.) and she said she knew nothing about them. She said to come back at a later date when the manager or owner their, which I have done but have allways missed them. Anyway, dose anyone know anything about them or a web site I can go to, to find some info about them???Thank you
 
I assume they are just crayfish. That means they will go best in a tank by themselves as they will probably ctach and eat whatever swims close to them. They are scavengers so they will probably eat just about anything, though a meaty diet is most likely preffered.
 
And by tank by themselves, minimum of 20g if it's a US cray (most commonly the Procambarus Alleni), 29G if it's Aussie (which can be a few).

They're also not tropical, most sites quote 73F as the limit of their tolerance.

Make sure the tank has a decent lid and no large holes, they will climb out.

They'll eat... anything. Mine eats shrimp pellets, rice, carrots, beef, chicken. peas, potato, other fish (mine has eaten 2 black neons and a betta to date), it's shedded skeleton...

... and yes, leave the shell when it molts, it eats it to help build a new one.

Mine will be moving to a 29g (it's a Cherax Quadricarinatus), to be joined by 10 exodons (cold limit for them, hot limit for the cray). Aggression levels between the two species should be minimal, and an exodon should be able to handle themselves against a cray... at least until it's up around the 8" mark.
 
I just purchased one yesterday and the person at the store told me that they basicaly eat anything on the bottom on the tank, so i purchased a little bottle of pellets that sink to try it out.
 
Speedy_30 said:
I just purchased one yesterday and the person at the store told me that they basicaly eat anything on the bottom on the tank, so i purchased a little bottle of pellets that sink to try it out.
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Well, they lied to you there. I was fooled the same way many years ago. They swore to me that if you keep them fed they would leave the fish alone. I fed mine every day and he still killed every fish that swam by him. I took it back that same week.

if you like your fish i suggest you take it back or get it its own tank.
 
Electric Blue Lobster

Good for you!! I hope you are enjoying your new little buddy!!

Yes they do like to eat ANYTHING off the bottom of the tank, flake food, shrimp pellets, algea, LIVE PLANTS, dead/live fish and in some cases each other!!

I feed mine wardley's shrimp pellets, algae tabs and for treats they get blood worms or meal worms. I also have a few feeder guppies in there to incurage natural feeding & hunting behaviours. :dive:

http://www.petfish.net/kb/entry/19/174/

this is a good website for information on care and behaviour of your new cray. I recomend this site to everyone who buy my crayfish, to read it over to get an idea of what these guys will be like in the tank and how to make sure they live long and grow big!

Hope this helps!

:dance:
 
I have an electric blue crawfish in my 50 gallon. I really like the color, and crawfish have lots of personality. I also had a "regular" crawfish several months ago.

The biggest problem I have with him is that they devour live plants. Its not really possible to have live plants with a crawfish. I replaced them all with fake plants.

Other than that they eat almost anything. It scavenges the gravel during most of the night time. I leave it sinking food, or once a week I put some type of fruit/veggie in there for him. Tomatoes, cherries, carrots.... its all good for him. I've heard its not really good to feed him most types of meat you would buy at the store b/c its really fatty. Maybe frozen fish? shrimp? I dunno, mine seems content on a mostly vegetarian diet.

I keep my tank at 78ish (sometimes it gets hotter b/c the texas heat - 80-82) and he seems fine with it. One note - they are not completely aquatic animals, which means they need a means to breath air. Either a place to get out of the water, or interestingly enough, if you just have bubbles they can breath from the bubbles, which is true. My last crawfish died because my air pump broke for a few days.

The aggression really depends on the crawfish. I haven't had any problems with either. My 1st crawfish was really passive. The fish would sometimes pick on him (tiger barbs), and I had ghost shrimp in the tank, and he wouldn't touch them, even if they were right in front of him, he would wait till they moved, and then go. My blue craw is more aggressive. He'll snap at a fish if they bug him too much, and he always tries to get the mystery snails. I guess I have fast/aggressive fish (giant danios, tiger barbs, albino cherry barbs, rainbow shark) so he can't catch them, but he hasn't even gotten close to catching one, and its not like he's trying to go after them, just if they get too close, he'll have a go at them. My last one killed a red-claw crab though.

Overall, neat little guys. Good scavengers, good personality. But the live plant thing can be a problem, and airation is a must. Mine also likes to build "forts" as I call them. He'll dig out a corner of the tank and put a big mound in front of it, kinda interesting, but it could be annoying.
 
I find my Femlaes are a lot more dosile then my males. I have two males who always like to fight in the tank when they see eachother at meal time or when out exploring. When ever i put my two fingers up to the glass the bigger male will always come running over and challenge me. Thinks he's real tough when i back down. He'll also chase around the females sometimes. What a mean little bugger. The rest of the group is fine. :shark:

So in case you are a bit woried about crayfish being too aggresive for your tank, maybe consider getting a female.
 
Bigbob55 said:
I have an electric blue crawfish in my 50 gallon. I really like the color, and crawfish have lots of personality. I also had a "regular" crawfish several months ago.

The biggest problem I have with him is that they devour live plants. Its not really possible to have live plants with a crawfish. I replaced them all with fake plants.

Other than that they eat almost anything. It scavenges the gravel during most of the night time. I leave it sinking food, or once a week I put some type of fruit/veggie in there for him. Tomatoes, cherries, carrots.... its all good for him. I've heard its not really good to feed him most types of meat you would buy at the store b/c its really fatty. Maybe frozen fish? shrimp? I dunno, mine seems content on a mostly vegetarian diet.

I keep my tank at 78ish (sometimes it gets hotter b/c the texas heat - 80-82) and he seems fine with it. One note - they are not completely aquatic animals, which means they need a means to breath air. Either a place to get out of the water, or interestingly enough, if you just have bubbles they can breath from the bubbles, which is true. My last crawfish died because my air pump broke for a few days.

The aggression really depends on the crawfish. I haven't had any problems with either. My 1st crawfish was really passive. The fish would sometimes pick on him (tiger barbs), and I had ghost shrimp in the tank, and he wouldn't touch them, even if they were right in front of him, he would wait till they moved, and then go. My blue craw is more aggressive. He'll snap at a fish if they bug him too much, and he always tries to get the mystery snails. I guess I have fast/aggressive fish (giant danios, tiger barbs, albino cherry barbs, rainbow shark) so he can't catch them, but he hasn't even gotten close to catching one, and its not like he's trying to go after them, just if they get too close, he'll have a go at them. My last one killed a red-claw crab though.

Overall, neat little guys. Good scavengers, good personality. But the live plant thing can be a problem, and airation is a must. Mine also likes to build "forts" as I call them. He'll dig out a corner of the tank and put a big mound in front of it, kinda interesting, but it could be annoying.
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i dont think it's true about breathing out of water, crayfish are perfectly fine in fully submerged environments. Maybe what happened before was when your air bubble broke, your water oxygen level dropped to dangerous levels?

from personal experience tiger barbs sleep at night with their heads down vertically, so they are still at risk from a surprise attack. I am sure over time you will lose some fish to the crayfish.
 
We had one for a while, loved him! Be sure to have a full lid on your tank, and seal off any means of escape. Ours went on an adventure, :look:
We found him out on the deck 8+ hours later. We spent several hours trying to re-acclimate him to water breathing, but he didn't make it. :thud:
He was by far my favorite fish, err... critter.

We fed him the sinking carnivore pellets. Using a big 7-11 straw worked great to get the food to him and keep it away from the other fishies.
We're thinking about another one, but our tank is really happy right now.
 
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