Help With Bucket List Item..

[comocrayfish5]

ok call me crazy... ask me why i want one for a pet... or why it wouldnt be more worth it to just eat one... but.... an item on my bucket list is to own a pet lobster 

 
ever since i was little, i loved looking at them in the grocery store in their tanks. and then i saw a LARGE one (like 2' tail to claw) like last year and i fell in love soon i was allowed to keep crayfish, the smaller fresh cousin of the lobster. and of course i have fallen in love with them and i "breed" (Marbled Crayfish) them. and so i am still shooting for the dream of one day owning a pet lobster. but i of course have only owned freshwater (and currently dont have the room or $ for salty tanks). but my mind always wants to know: how would you care for a lobster? would you need the live rock for them to survive? they seem to be ok in the store... what would the water need to be like? if they come from the ocean right out on the coast, could you just get fresh sea water? what size tank should be appropriate (comparing to the grocery store tank, not the ocean)?
 
 

 

 

[crazyforcordoras]

Well,the ones in the store arent meant to be there long term, they fo eatin.

If you really want a lobster, look into Duams Reef lobster or Debelius Reef lobster. They are smaller so you wont need as large a tank, but still they are salty and thats expensive.

They will eat meaty foods, even fish if they can catch them.

 

[Clearwaters]

I have a blue lobster in my fresh water tank, had 2 but one passed away a few month back, great size and colour he was, I enjoy them but they wreck the tank, dig up all the plants and move all the sand, so really need to be in a tank that your not to botherdwith the look of it, keep it simple, but they are good pets and interesting to most visitors to the house.

 

[comocrayfish5]

you really have a blue crayfish...
 
 
everyone call them lobsters
 
 
i can see why the store lobsters would live short term if they are wild. its not like they are all from commercial breeders

 

[Donya]

There are public aquariums that keep lobsters long-term. There's one near me that has quite a lot of lobsters, all in different tanks except for a couple of exhibits where they have to be kept banded. You would be limited to one lobster, you'd need a pretty decent sized tank (which needs to have front-to-back space; a lot of long enough tanks will be too narrow), and you'd need a chiller. Lobsters were on my list until I started looking up chillers. Then I settled for crabs lol. The public aquarium I go to that keeps a lot of lobsters keeps some in 4x2x2 species tanks if I've guessed the dimensions right. Those individual lobsters may eventually outgrow those tanks, but they have been around for years and the growth rate is really quite slow. If the cost/space/electricity usage don't put you off, then it may be feasible. However, you would probably be better starting with something less specialized where far more documentation exists as a first saltwater tank.

 

[comocrayfish5]

thanks! i am guessing that the grocery store dont have chillers? i think a 75g would be a decent size for a small one. of course this is still just an idea and i am not getting anything in the near future

 

[crazyforcordoras]

Chillers are also quite costly

 

[comocrayfish5]

yeah    i guess my crayfish will have to do

 

[Donya]

i am guessing that the grocery store dont have chillers?

 
 
All of the grocery stores I've seen that keep lobsters/crabs in a big tank 24/7 must have chillers hidden somewhere. The tanks were all really cold to the touch and often got condensation on them. There's one store I go to now that might not have their display chilled (never seen condensation on it and never touched it to see), but there aren't very many lobsters in there at any given time and only for part of the day. So, if the display isn't cooled, I would assume the lobsters are stored in a cooled tank in the back the rest of the time.
 
 

yeah 

    i guess my crayfish will have to do 

 
There are also other smaller, tropical relatives of the edible lobsters that make for good species tanks, such as the tropical spiny lobsters and smaler "reef" lobsters that crazyforcorydoras mentioned.
 
 
 

 

[comocrayfish5]

i will have to look into more lobster kinds. for now i am about to deal with more crayfish babies because my marble crayfish just laid more eggs on monday. i am sooooo excited! (having baby crays never gets old!)