Crannibal...

[Spinal]

Well... What can I say. Yesterday I went to the LFS to buy some weights for my plants as I needed to trim some off and replant them. (un)fortunately, my friend decided to come with me, and partly through whining, partly through forcing, (and partly through paying ) I got a crayfish they had.

I didn't let it go easily, and asked quite a few questions. Questions like, why is it in a tank with guppies? Why do 1/4 the guppies have shredded tails? What does it eat? Will it go in a community? Will it eat anything in my tank (naming the members in the tank it went in... nominally, CRS, Mollys, Brazilian golden clams, a spike-tail mts and a mahogany mts).

Well, this morning come feeding time (deshelled defrosted clams for the crayfish) I realise hes already snacking on something.... MY SPIKE-TAIL mts!!! Great, I had ordered only one as I had heard about how quickly they populate... grumble... and I thought they were resistent under a very thick shell (and daily calcium additions)

Right, so while I clone a tank (need a new filter, I had garaged this tank doe to the filter breaking), any ideas? Will it eat anythin else in my tank? I fear for the mahogany mts, but am kind-of hoping that it will stay buried and hidden enough...

Also, say I reorder some spike-tails, how few/many should I get so that they keep reproducing faster than Tiago (the name of my friend who pushed me into impulse buying and the name of the crayfish) can snack on them? If it isn't too many, I might just keep him with them, and let him hunt instead of feeding every now and then...

Sigh... <goes off to clean up the psare 3-footer and starts looking for a filter on eBay>

Michele

 

[moray]

Anything smaller then the cray is probably food, plants will be destroyed and eaten too. snails make a nice snack and fish he doesn't catch can still get large parts removed by its pincers. crayfish are not good in a community tank, species only (and even then I keep mine in a 3ft by itself as the often kill each other).

They are beautiful and interesting but not suitable to keep with other things, I love mine (Thermidor)

 

[Spinal]

Anything smaller then the cray is probably food, plants will be destroyed and eaten too. snails make a nice snack and fish he doesn't catch can still get large parts removed by its pincers. crayfish are not good in a community tank, species only (and even then I keep mine in a 3ft by itself as the often kill each other).

They are beautiful and interesting but not suitable to keep with other things, I love mine (Thermidor)

Thanks for the reply! I'm going to move him into the 3footer on his own asap, but need to cycle it a little first... even cloning the previous tank. I also just realised he loves climbing on my plants... oh well, hes moving soon... Any idea what I can do to cut my losses while I wait for the new filter?

A quick addition is that I found out he loves rummaging through the substrate! He has done more in a couple of hours than all the snails i can think of in days!

Michele

 

[moray]

If you are cloning, with a good filter then I wouldn't bother cycling, he'll be the only creature in there and should be fine, remember they still need it dechlorinated (etc) and prefer it cooler so it won't need a heater.

 

[Spinal]

If you are cloning, with a good filter then I wouldn't bother cycling, he'll be the only creature in there and should be fine, remember they still need it dechlorinated (etc) and prefer it cooler so it won't need a heater.

HUGE thanks to SugarQube, who donated a octagonal tank with filter to save Tiago! I just cloned the tank (or better put, attempted to ). Filled the new tank with water from the old tank, added a chinese take-away bowl full of old gravel to the new gravel and squeezed the old filter into the new filter (couldn't swap some filter media, I couldn't get the sponges out of the cage in the new filter) (took the opportunity to do a water change in the old tank), hunted tiago down... after a few minutes of him mowing down my forests, I decided to submerge a bucket and remove all the stones. He decided the bucket looked safe and voila! Hes now in SugarQube's hex (or is it Oct? didn't check ) tank, and doesn't seem to stressed.

I set the water temp to 24C (the temp in the previous tank), but as you said he prefers cooler water, I'll go and lower the heater down to 21/22C after this post so that the water can cool gently overnight.

I also transferred a plant he mowed down, so he can have a midnight snack tonite...

A quick vid of him in his new abode... (p.s. sorry, I haven't mastered the art of making my pictures/films watchable...)
http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wHJTeYVHQc
http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1WwmUIVo7s

Thanks for all the help!
Michele

 

[Spinal]

Cool

and oh, the video of the co2 diffuser was very entertaining It's fun to watch the bubbles race up on the ladders...it's almost like watching the barrels on donkey kong

LOL and you managed to see that?! I've been trying to get it to play on my pc since uploading it, and its refusing to play! I've deleted and reuploaded it now... lets see what happens... maybe its just my flash software acting weird....

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rb8-QfOMFTw

Lets see if I can see that in a couple of mins

Now, I just need to rotate a video 90 degrees... Hmmm... I think I'll need ulead....

Michele