# Blue lobster and plecos



## nasomi

I want to get a blue lobster for my tank, but I'm worried it will tear up my pleco's. They spend a lot of their time resting on the walls, or on top of different decorations, but occationally will drop down and hang out on the ground. I'm not worried about my bala's, they're pretty damned agile and rarely spend much time on the bottom. It's a big tank, and I would hope they have enough room to each have their own territory, but I wanted to make sure. Can anyone comment on this? Thanks.


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## Gizmo

In a few words, your cray will turn your plecos into lunch, or the plecos will clobber the cray to death. I wouldn't put a cray in with anything I didn't mind ending up as lunch.

Keep in mind even fast swimmers like balas hang out near the bottom at night to avoid the current and sleep. And crays are nocturnal, so....yeah.


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## susankat

+1 with Guy. You would need to decide which you want most or get a tank just for the lobster.


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## nasomi

Hmm, i thought fish didn't sleep...


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## squirrel502

hummm...I have 2 blue lobsters in with my cichlids and sofar no problems of any kind. Mind you, I put them all in at the same time, and I made sure that the lobsters were not bigger then the smallest cichlid. It has been 1 month together and no problems of any kind. Both lobsters have there hiddy holes, and everything is just peachy.


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## susankat

Cichlids are a lot different than plecos. Plecos will lots of times be on the bottom.

Besides even with cichlids you never know what is going to happen in a few months. You can either have the lobsters start attacking fish or the fish deciding that the lobsters will taste good.


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## nasomi

I wanted to put it in with the bala's because the bala's will get to a 12-14", so even at the cray's biggest, I would think that it wouldn't be a big issue. As far as the bala's on the cray, everything I've read says they're not agressive towards other fish, generally.


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## Gizmo

I don't think you'll have to worry about your bala sharks beating up on the cray, but I bet the cray's gonna try and take a swipe at them after too long. He might not kill them outright, but a good nab from a cray's claw can seriously mess up a fish.

Also note - crays will eat live plants too, if they're hungry enough. They're also very good escape artists (being able to climb up filter inlet pipes, electrical cords, etc., and push hoods out of the way.

The reason I call them crayfish versus lobsters is because crayfish are freshwater, and lobsters are salt water.


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## AliceInDallas

nasomi said:


> I want to get a blue lobster for my tank, but I'm worried it will tear up my pleco's. They spend a lot of their time resting on the walls, or on top of different decorations, but occasionally will drop down and hang out on the ground .... Can anyone comment on this? Thanks.


Hello! I have a fairly large blue lobster and young plecos and a Black Ghost Knife Fish in a 30 gal tank. They all started out in a 90 gal community tank. The lobster was small when I got him - about the size of my thumb (and I have a small thumb). He is now about 7-8 inches from front to back, since Christmas. 

When he reached 5 inches, he was tearing up all of the plants, eating from the roots up. Also, although he never did catch anyone, he would wave his claws menacingly at the slower fish, which frightened them. The Black Ghost was seriously frightening the smaller and slower fish :betta: and I think he was on the prowl at night so that no one could sleep safely. 

So I decided that the lobster (Louie) and my Ghost (Casper) and 2 smallish plecos (Tom and Jerry) needed to move to a tank all their own. I moved them all to a 30 gallon. They have been in there about 2 months now, and everyone gets along fine. All are growing and thriving. The plecos are now about 3 inches from head to tip of tail, but when they all headed to the smaller tank, they were about 1.5 inches.

As to the plecos and your concern about whether or not the lobster might do them harm ..... these little fish have eyes in the back of their heads, I feel sure  or maybe it's just good radar. Even when they appear to be sleeping in the gravel, anytime the lobster starts moving in their direction, they are off like a shot. They move soooo much faster than Louie (even though it is amazing how fast he can move when he feels threatened by a grabber-stick or whatever).

And just face it - no matter how fierce they appear, these lobsters are really awkward and clumsy when it comes to catching anything that isn't stationary. They have these great big overgrown claws that they wave around, looking much like a 2 year old swinging a full sized baseball bat - totally useless when it comes to attack maneuvers. They use them to shove food back toward their tiny little legs, which they use to pull food up into their mouth.

Those plecos will never be food for the lobster - or the ghost either. Not only are they fast, but they have all this armor and pointy spines. Not very conducive to being served up on a platter! 

So go right ahead. You will find that the lobster is very intelligent, and has a personality. Mine comes to the front of the glass when he sees me, with this charming, alert "You're gonna feed me, right?" look on his face. :fish-in-a-bag: He even has good eye contact! He knows to stay right where he is and I will drop something down to him. He has even learned that the grabber tongs carry FOOD, and so he doesn't run from them anymore. Delightful. 

He and the ghost wrestle over the raw split clam shell/meat that they get every other day - but that's as far as his aggression goes.

Cheers!


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## Andra111

I had a blue cray fire about 2 months in my 50 gal. It was small when I got it and it was happy and milled like 8 times and got bigger and bigger. I watched it snip at my albino pleco a couple of times and then I actually watch the pleco swim away turn around and full speed swam right back at and pummeled my lobster right off its little claws. Tumbled right off of Rock I watch the pleco do it a second time and then swim away. He showed him who was boss. However Within the short time, my blue cray went into hiding for molting and never showed up again not any bit. It just disappeared off the face of the Earth. I only have Molly's in the tank with it and two rainbow sharks who are pretty docile and only hang with each other. I'm pretty positive the pleco ate the blue cray while molting and vulnerable. If that's possible I'm not sure but I can't explain anything else. I've turned everything over in my tank, I've looked all around my tank and there is no blue cray lobster anymore. It's been a months now and still no sign of Larry my lobster.


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