Blue Crayfish with my Cichlids?

[PunkRock050]

Since I dont have a bottom feeder in there, and I have planty of plants and hiding places, I was thinking of getting a Blue Crayfish for my 55 Cichlid tank. Would they just kill it, or vice versa? Also, would it kill the snails?

 

[hollywoodH]

i have one in my Mbuna's and he seems cool he leaves them alon and they leave him alone, but on advive from this boared it may not be a wise move

 

[semper fi]

depends on what type of cichlid you are going to put it in with. americans would eat him right off. anything that will fit in their mouths is called lunch! some of the other varieties will pick at it til it is toast. especially the mbuna. a little trick i did with my mbuna and plecs was to keep him (the plec) in a breeder net during the day and since they are nocturnal, i released him about an hour after i turned off the lights in the tank. otherwise he turned into fish food.

 

[PunkRock050]

Well I think mine are Africans, I have some Cobalt Blue Zebras, regular Blue Zebras, Auratus, etc etc. Those are Africans right?

 

[semper fi]

those are africans, lake malawi and they also are in the class of mbunas. auratus is the most aggressive of the group. i would not add the crayfish to this particular group of fish.

 

[Paul]

I made the mastake of adding a blue crayfish to my Tanganyikan tank about a year ago. My N. Buscheri started picking him apart as soon as he hit the water. The Bsucheri got one of his eyes before I could get him out. He resided in my oddball tank until he molted and wondered into the cave my pictus cat was in at the time and became a meal.

 

[semper fi]

ouch!

 

[cichlid_freak]

I had a blue crawfish with my 7 cichlids! The crawfish did very well at fending them off and no fish even tried to mess with him (not even Oscar), but later I added a Snowflake Morray Eel for a few days they were fine togather, but then one night it was on like Donkey Kong. The Morray Eel cracked the shell of my beloved crawfish and he died. The next day my Morray Eel wrapped around the heater and died from burns. I now have quality heaters with guards in ALL of my tanks, but have not replaced either of the fish.

 

[Gibbo]

Double ouch!!

 

[mbunaman]

Mr freak. Can u put murray eels in tropical tanks i thought they were salt water

 

[CFC]

There are a couple of morray's that shops sell as freshwater but they are actually brackish

 

[mbunaman]

thats a shame i would love one of them perhaps its time for another tank lol

 

[semper fi]

always time for another tank! can never have enough!

 

[cichlid_freak]

I have found 2 types of morrays that are often sold as freshwater morrays, the snowflake and the dragon (very cool they have a red and yellow head) morrays. I don't know if they are fw or brackish, but at the time I had a figure 8 puffer and put a SMALL amount of Doc Wellfish salt. This didn't harm anything in the water and was enough for my eel and figure 8. I really don't know if there are any true fw but I do know that they don't mind a little salt, not like bony eels (tiretrack, peacock, or fire...) But now that my experimenting with oddballs, I only have 2 tiretracks and 2 bichirs (Polypterid ornatipinnis and senegalus).

 

[CFC]

All the above forementioned eels will happilly live in brackish water up to 4tsp salt per 5 uk gallons as well as freshwater (they may even prefer it).For info see Baensch aquarium atlas volume one.