Lobster

[blu187]

iam thinking of putting one male betta in with one blue lobster, with no heater in a large tank with an exernal filter. I would appreciate any opinions on this.

 

[catxx]

anything with big claws will eat fish, or at least attack them.
not advisable.

 

[raptorrex]

anything with big claws will eat fish, or at least attack them.
not advisable.

can i ask how many crab/Crayfish you have and how long you have kept them, i an always interested in hearing some one else's experiences

iam thinking of putting one male betta in with one blue lobster, with no heater in a large tank with an exernal filter. I would appreciate any opinions on this.

cant speak for the betta as i dont have one! but my Cray lives in a community tank, along with a crab, shrimp and fish from Corys through plecs to rummynose Tetras and i have no problems. its down to the maturity of the Cray/Lobster, with a little bit of its personality thrown in. as a thought, are you in the UK, if so the only Cray you can keep is a RedClaw!! these are a tropical Cray and will not fair well in a unheated tank.

i always think this "things with claws will eat fish" is funny, you have to see a Pygmy Gurami, pushing around a RedClaw crab, to really understand though. lol don't get me wrong Cray and crab will eat fish, but only the sick , dead, or perhaps the stupid.

technically they need a ph of 6-7.5, water temp 22-28c, though this is not a strict limit. they are scavengers, so eat most anything, mine likes fresh chicken, fresh peas, fish flake and redworm, humm fingers too if you are trying to get them to eat from the hand lol. they also love airstones, and will spend hours straddling one.

as a spectacle they are, imo, without peer. when young they moult, every three weeks or so, morphing in colour and size. as they get older they moult about once a year. BE WARNED they can be the best escapologists you need to make your tank secure.

 

[pica_nuttalli]

if its a bright blue lobster and you live in the UK, then its a species which is highly predacious and grows to be at least a foot long. the smaller "blue lobsters" (which are available in the US) are a restricted import to the UK.

personally? i would never keep a slow-swimming fish like a male betta with anything that has claws. even if the lobster isn't big/mean enough to eat the betta outright, it can probably do some serious damage to fins.

 

[leddy]

BE WARNED they can be the best escapologists you need to make your tank secure.

Oh yes...A good weight on your tank lid will be a must!
I kept one in a community tank a few years ago.
Claude Van Damned was my pet crab-who ate anyone in his way-this tiny little crab was gigantic in attitude. He even attacked the cat. He had one heck of a special talent.
This was Houdini in crab form. He managed to get through a 2 cm gap in the back of the fish tank lid (after getting through a tiny gap in a plate glass screen!), survive a five and a bit foot drop, and go walkabout.
We'd find him in all sorts of places-he once got as far as the bathroom, on the other side of the house. He tended to prefer just puttering about the living room, since it was the warmest room.

Until he met my Nan.
My Nan has a deathly fear of spiders, and somehow she managed to mistake a bright red, inch and a half long crab, with whopping great claws, for a tarantula.
She belted him, first with a newspaper, then with a pencil-before realising she was in fact braining my much favoured pet crab.
She filled a bowl with cold tap water, and flicked him in.
When my brother came home, and was told what happened, he told her that Claude needed hot, salty water.
So my Nan boiled the kettle, added half a shaker of salt, and dropped Claude Van Damned in.

Poor Claude Van Damned-he only lived for about a week after that. I don't think my Nan's eaten crab since either.


I'd be a bit iffy about putting a betta in with a crab or a lobster. Those long flowing fins may prove a bit of a temptation.
But that might depend upon your definition of a "large" tank. In my case the tank was 3 foot x 3foot x 3 foot-so it was fairly easy to keep a few gourami's, tetra, shrimp, bottom feeders, and a crab without too much fuss.
Be warned though! My crab was highly territorial, and had an ongoing feud with the dorid. I have been told this isn't normal though.

 

[raptorrex]

if its a bright blue lobster and you live in the UK, then its a species which is highly predacious and grows to be at least a foot long. the smaller "blue lobsters" (which are available in the US) are a restricted import to the UK.

if it Blue, well any colour, and in the uk to be legal it must be a Australian Redclaw Cherax quadricarinatus


thing is there is or was an amnisty for traders, no such amnesty exists for the hobbyist!!! and they do arrive and destroy the Cray. lol god help you if you have sold any on if your Cray has little ones, they get you for distributing a prohibited species. and that the same as selling a dog with rabies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
apart from this most if not all Crays that are not Cherax quadricarinatus are cold water Cray, and will suffer in a tropical tank, though i may have said that before!

simple choice do it legally or not at all!!!!

they do come in Colbalt Blue, but this is the most common colouring. incidentally the Blue Cray is a genetic defect not a breed in itself. it happens to all Crays and Lobster too.

 

[starrynightxxi]

um, no one's mentioned the fact that the tank has no heater. really, you should have a heater as bettas are tropical fish, not coldwater, and while it might not make much difference in summer, we're getting into winter months and it's really getting colder than a betta tank ought to be (in most places).