Sand or Gravel for Crayfish?

[mandi]

A coworker/friend of my boyfriends gave me what he referred to as "freshwater zebra lobsters" -- I think that would be zebra crayfish (Cherax papuanus). Anyway, they're less than 1/2" long each (small enough that I can't find them in the gravel!!) and right now they're in my 6-gallon (Eclipse system 6 tank).

Anyway, I'm looking into getting another tank (probably 2 more tanks) because I know as they grow they won't be able to be housed together, and that 6 gallon won't be big enough. So I want to get another tank, get it set up & cycling so that I can have it ready.

So I'm wondering -- in the new tank, should I put sand or rocks? It seems like they'd be easier to see if I got some sand and some big rocks for them to hide under, but I don't know if they'd like it or not.

 

[Never2Bknown]

I'll bet they'd like the sand; they'll be able to burrow under the rocks more easily that way. I know that I certainly find a lot of the little buggers in the sandier spots in the Flat river--wherever there were rocks to hide under. That was one of my hobbies back then; seeing how many crayfish I could catch before I let them all go. It was especially challenging because I never used a net. I still managed to catch at least 30 or more in one spot, though. I found more of them in rocky areas, but I think the only reason for that was because there were a lot more rocks. The fast-flowing river current tended to cover up a lot of the rocks in the sandy areas; I don't think that should be a problem for an aquarium, though.

 

[Thefish1001]

I am about to get a dwarf crayfish and I got sand