# Wild Crawdads....



## Subaru4wd (May 6, 2011)

We had a BBQ yesterday at a local park for Fathers Day and the kids caught a few crawdad at the creek. We brought them all home, I took 3 and put them in my 88gal. THere's nothing in there but these 3 crawdad, a few snails and a few plants. We'll see how they do, not sure if I will keep them in when I stock the tank, but for now they are kinda entertaining to watch.

This is the largest:









This is one of the small ones:









This is the large and one of the small ones together:









I fed them some bacon. There are a couple pieces still in the tank, Im curious to know what bacon fat will do to my eco system, anyone have any info?


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

Yay for crawdads!I used to love to catch them.

Have no clue on the bacon though,lol.


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## automatic-hydromatic (Oct 18, 2010)

very cool! I've been thinking about catching some local critter like that and setting up my spare 10 gallon for it

I bet they would chow down on some blood worms! or other little fishes if you're not careful, lol

ghost shrimp are cheap and used as live feeder food; that might be an option too


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## Cray4me (Nov 24, 2010)

Nice looking crayfish. With help I have caught 17 at one time before. They are so neat. I only have one from that whole batch we found. He is a Virile crayfish. Looks a little like yours.
Give them many places to hide and they should do fine in there but there are no garentees that they will not eat eachother.


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## laxfanweeb (Mar 2, 2011)

where are you from they look a bit like Allegheny crays. I caught two Rust Crays about 3 months ago and the larger killed and ate the smaller. also if you are putting any fish in there that you don't want to die get the crays out. Crays will eat literally anything, they up root plants and shred them. I have found that their favorite snack is small pond snails. Right now my remaining cray is in a 40 gallo environment with lots of trapdoor snails I caught also but these guys are about the size of a baseball and too big for the cray to eat. Bacon won't hurt the eco system but it's gets the water gross and disgusting looking and you'll have to change the filter media a lot. Honeslty they love veggies though and earth worms. They are fun but can be supe destructive.


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## Subaru4wd (May 6, 2011)

I am in Sacramento CA, not sure what kinda crawdad these are but i know people eat the crap out of them here  My brother in law brought his kids back to the park across the street from our house, and caught another bucket full of them.

I took the large one out. I am missing 1 small one, i believe he too got sucked into the filter. I am left with one smaller sized guy and it looks like he will be leaving the tank soon too (maybe). The large guy did up-root one of my plants, but i dont see any damage to them. I have not put any fish in the tank yet, but this is my last week on the cycle and I am hoping to start stocking this tank next week.


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## gman339 (Jul 4, 2011)

I had an Australian red clawed yabby (Australian crayfish) for 2-3 years that got to be 6-7 inches. If you have live plants in your tank they will definitely destroy them. Mine even destroyed fake plants. They will eat just about anything (including other fish) but I fed mine algae wafers and occasional shrimp pellets. As someone already mentioned it is important for them to have hiding places.

I even caught it molting once and recorded it:

Crayfish Molting


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## FAIRCHILD (Jun 30, 2011)

I have 3 crawdads in my community tank, they are super fun to watch! Mine eat up the uneaten flake food, and the occasional snail


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## lefty31 (Jul 19, 2010)

Crawfish are very cool indeed. As mentioned they are cannibalistic so watch the little ones by giving AMPLE hiding places. Also they do climb quite well. Lost one that way without a perfectly sealed top. They aren't picky eaters at all. But when you see them molt don't bother feeding because that is just wasting food as they eat the shell to help build up their calcium fast so they have a hard shell soon. As far as other fish in the tank if you keep it well fed it shouldn't be a problem. At night through in chunks of zucchini or cucumber and it'll be gone come morning. Hope this helps mate!


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## FAIRCHILD (Jun 30, 2011)

Oh and also the occasionally egg shell is good for them as well. Just small pieces though


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## Subaru4wd (May 6, 2011)

That is some of the coolest video I have ever seen! I didnt see any anything like that when I had my crawdad. Now I have no crawdad in the tank. I took the last one out a couple weeks ago when I prepared the tank for fish.


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