How long crawfish can live for

Do NOT cook dead crawfish. Do not buy bugs caked in mud and all crawfish should be similar in size to cook in the same amount of time. Several Louisiana crawfish farmers will ship live crawfish next-day air or via air cargo for pickup. Always check reviews online before buying. Not every farmer or provider grades crawfish, so you want to look for medium to large crawfish. Crawfish can come in various grades: value grade, select grade, and premium grades. Value grade or mixed catch crawfish usually provide more mudbugs for your money, but the mix of sizes makes for uneven cooking.

Select grade and premium grade crawfish are larger—and well-suited for a boil. If you really want to impress, premium grade or extra-large crawfish are closer in size to their lobster cousins. You buy crawfish by the pound rather than by the number of crawfish.

One person can usually eat 3 to 5 pounds of crawfish, while seasoned crawfish connoisseurs will devour more. Legend has it that an experienced Cajun can eat 7 to 10 pounds of mudbugs in one sitting!

To plan your crawfish order, add the number of people coming to your party. Crawfish is an absolutely delicious type of seafood that people of all ages can enjoy.

Contrary to popular belief, it is not a type of lobster. Aside from being served as is with butter and lemon, it can also go in gumbo, pasta, stew, and even be used as a sandwich filling. Looking for the best crawfish in Houston? Reach out to Crawfish Cafe! We serve the best crawfish in Houston with Viet-Cajun crawfish and seafood including shrimp, black mussels, king crab legs, and more!

Not registered yet? Create an Account. Friend's Email Address. Your Name. Your Email Address. Will they do that? I would try to rehome at least a few of them if possible. And crayfish turning blue is a mystery as far as I know.

It seems once they turn blue, they will remain that way as long as they remain in the same conditions. Hi Robert. Thanks for this awesome site. Until recently I had 2 blue crayfish. Anyway, the problem I have is one has gone missing and the other has eggs under her tail! What do you recommend I do? And the hatchlings themselves become cannibalistic as they age, so that will reduce the numbers even further. After they hatch and are free swimming, the mother should then be removed too.

The good news is there is generally a lot of demand for blue crayfish You can sell them on local fish forums, trade them for credit at fish stores and if that fails, you can usually give them away. And as for the male, in my experience they tend to disappear when the female becomes egg laden. But take that advice with a grain of salt, and it may have been eaten during a molt or pulled a houdini on you.

I feel your pain with the pleco too. When I first starting keeping crayfish, I lost a lot of fish trying to find tankmates for them. I even had a friend who lost an adult arowana to a crayfish. I have no idea how that happened. I eventually went with crayfish only tanks, as it seems to be the least trouble that way. Robert, Thanks for replying. Unfortunately we found the missing male crayfish earlier this evening after my dog was sniffing around underneath the tv cabinet.

There he was behind some wires on his back. Poor thing has passed away, although I currently have him half submerged in a bowl of warmish water. Ah well, at least the female is still around.

I might keep a couple back but will see how it goes. The eggs usually hatch after around a month, and then your tank will be swarming with little hatchlings.

I feel you pain with the crayfish, as I lost a really big one a few years ago to an escape. In that case my dog actually brought it to me in its mouth. Increase the frequency of your water changes to make sure the water is sparkling clean, and feed them a very high quality diet, which should include blanched vegetables, shrimp pellets, and frozen foods daphnia, bloodworms, etc.

While neither of these things will trigger breeding by themselves, clean water and high quality food will encourage breeding behaviors. Certain species also need a trigger like spring to start breeding. Then over the course of a few weeks, slowly increase the temperature of the water, while increasing the amount of light in the tank.

This simulates spring, and may trigger breeding in certain species. I have a 4 red belly Pacu 1 5 inc big and the 3 are just 3 inches big. I am thinking of getting a Crayfish for my 7 year old daughter to see and enjoy.

I am planning to put those articles that I heave read to action cave, pots on it side and stuff. My main concern is would by Red belly Pacu slaughter crayfish?

I have not seen any posts regarding this. Also, I have a Common Pleco whos is also a bottom dweller, should I remove it to make room for my Crayfish assuming they can live with red belly pacus? Though Pacus mainly eat nuts and fruit in the wild, they will supplement this diet with just about anything that moves.

And since they can grow up to 3 feet in length 0. I have a blue crayfish in a 30 gallon tank with a pair of koi. I just noticed she is pregnant and loaded with eggs. Can I keep her in the tank with the koi or will the koi eat the babies? The koi will definitely attempt to eat the babies, though their success will be determined by how many hiding places there are.

You can also expect to lose a lot to cannibalism among the young too. My son got given a fresh water crayfish. She had eggs attached after set up of her new home four days later i noticed she was moving about to much and came in this morning and she was not alive.

What can i do with the eggs? Can i save the eggs? Not to sure how long she has eggs for. But the best thing you can do is to give them the cleanest water possible, and watch for any signs of fungus. Fungus is often the real egg killer, and any hint fungus, you should treat with tea tree oil.

Thank you for writing this! If I caught a crayfish to put in our well circulated 1 foot deep kind of natural-we just helped it a little pond, well planted, 8 by 5 foot pond, would it survive? Would I need to feed it? Also, would a crayfish eat watercress? Assuming it comes from the same climate your pond is in, it should do very well in a pond like that. They will often travel across land to find more suitable homes.

Especially since there will likely be other natural food sources occuring in the pond and it may forage around the pond on land. As far as I know, the Marbled Crayfish, or Marmokrebs Procambarus virginalis is the only know species of crayfish to reproduce via parthenogenesis. All the of the crayfish are females, and they were introduced to the hobby in the mid 90s. There is no information on where they originated, and there are no known wild populations currently though they are believed to have been introduced by release in certain areas.

So I looked it up. Good day if your crayfish has eggs does this mean the eggs where fertilized thank you. Many crayfish will have eggs without them being fertilized. However, most species can store sperm for up to six months, so when was the last time she was around a male? If the eggs are infertile, she will eventually realize this and will consume the eggs.

Hi, I was wondering if you could help me. I just got an electric blue lobster and he seems to have little clear worms on him. What can I do about this? They are new ubiquitous in wild caught crayfish, but I do understand they look very unsightly. One way to get rid of them is to remove the shell after the molt. This will usually prevent them from travelling over to the new exoskeleton. If you want to be a bit more aggressive, then you can use something like PraziPro, which will usually kills all the worms in the tank.

Hello, I am considering getting a crayfish for my tank but from what I have read might be reconsidering. I have a 55g tank with over a dozen fish, including 4 2 year old Angel fish, and a one year old Pleco, two small barbs, neon tetras and ghost catfiah.

The top is lidded and has a sponge filter. A lot depends on the species, but I always advise people to be very wary of adding a crayfish to a tank with fish. And with larger fish like angelfish, you run a real risk of the angelfish turning the tables and eating your crayfish when molting. In my experience, it usually comes down to who gets eaten first — the crayfish or the fish.

Thanks great forum by the way. Have you seen any mating occur? Do you have to know the exact species by any chance? Have you noticed any sperm packs? Is the orange crayfish a dwarf crayfish? Hi Robert, quick question. Recently, it has not been eating its pellets that we always gave it, and it stays hiding under its dark tube. How long has it been acting this way? What are your water parameters like?

The only thing I could recommend is adding some half strength to quarter stength marine iodine to the tank, in the hope that fixes him. In my experience, it tends to be extremely difficult to treat an ill crayfish. I hope he starts to recover.

I went ahead and purchased two medium size and two small gold fishes. He was out of his tube when I put the fishes in his tank. At first he stood frozen as if he was shocked with his claws owned and in a position ready to attack. The fishes swam around, in front and behind him and he did not move. One fish even swam to his mouth and tapped him causing him to jump as he was surprised. About an hour later, I found he was trying to escape the tank and had his claw caught in between the filter and cord, I tugged the cord down to let him loose and he slowly just walked to his half opened barrel.

He acts like they are relatives and friends and does not bother to hunt them. It sounds like he was just stressed from the new additions to his tank. Crayfish and fish have a very strange relationship sometimes. Some of them will live in complete harmony, and others will turn an aquarium into a scene from the Texas chainsaw massacre within minutes. Another problem is that crayfish are either the predator, or the prey, and larger fish like goldfish will sometimes eat crayfish. Still, just give it time, and often the crayfish will learn how to catch the fish.

Do you know what kind of Crayfish this is? All comments have to be approved individually, so I can protect against spam. Was it wild caught, and if so, where? Was it purchased at a fish store? If you give me a bit more information, I can help narrow it down. But most crayfish have pretty similar dietary needs.

You can usually meet them by following the feeding guidelines in the article. Just make sure they blanched fresh vegetables, shrimp pellets and maybe the occasional frozen fish food, and you should have a happy and healthy crayfish.

Also it lives in a cage mostly devoid of objects to hide in save for two fake rocks, and a pile of thoroughly cleaned gravel rocks, though he avoids those. I also believe it may be a Hand Painted Mudbug.

It must be instinct, because the second you them coming at you, all you want to do it avoid them. I actually handle mine with rubber gloves, when the water level is low during a water change.

Just switch the diet over to some sinking pellets, and start adding some fresh, blanched vegetables and you should be set. Not sure if he ate anymore, since the pellets he ate landed within an inch of his main claws. I will probably add some sand and more rock, so as to make it feel more like a creek bed, since he was wild-caught. Is this a good idea? If not, is there another way I can make it feel like a creek bed without sand and some rocky hiding places?

Is this a sign of molting soon or will Leonardo diCrabrio bite the dust soon? Do you happen to know what species it is? When you say green, is it a mild colouration, or like something is growing on it?

My son was gifted a crayfish from school and I am in the process of securing it the proper home. Thanks in advance for your help. And crayfish are an amazing pet to keep. Just make sure you provide it with lots of hiding places, and it should come out pretty regularly for you.

I am going to put in a wild crayfish in my 20 gallon tank with my chiclinds how can i declaw him? That would be an incredibly cruel thing to do. How much water do you put in the crayfish aquarium? Ive heard only an inch. I have one crayfish and a 10 gallon tank. Any other things that I need? You can completely fill the aquarium, and I would recommend using a sponge filter instead of an air stone, since you want to filter the water. Beyond that, add some decorations, or clay pots on their side for the crayfish to hide in.

With that, you should be ready to go. And why a sponge filter? Will it give air to the water? No, you can use an airstone, but I find sponge filters better since they also filter the water. They are what keeps the water safe for the crayfish. The only possible concerns are the crayfish climbing up the air house, or on rare occasions, a crayfish may take a chunk out of the filter.

I hope that is fine. Also, any idea how to get zucchini and cucumbers to sink and not float? Also, what are other things that I can feed this crayfish? And do I need to really need to add iodine or calcium, or can my crayfish survive with me providing him the right foods? A carbon filter is fine, and actually does a bit better job of cleaning the water. The first is to boil it for a while until it become soft, and then it will sink naturally.

Calcium it should be able to get from the food, but you might want to consider adding marine iodine at around half strength. I know many people who get away without doing, but it does seem to help crayfish in my experience. I saw a video on YouTube from a person who had a backyard crayfish pond. PVC is totally fine for an aquarium, and you can actually make nice, natural looking caves out of it. The way I do it is to put a layer of aquarium safe sealant on the PVC pipe, and then add rocks to it.

Or you could also add a layer of sand, or gravel that matches your existing substrate. Awesome advice — I think I will give it a try adding rocks to make it look more natural.

Or anything else that gets within inches of the top. He almost died! HI I would like to buy some breeding crayfish can you tell me where to buy. I live on Melbourne Australia or you can call me on my name tong. My son purchased a Blue Crayfish from the store and we brought it home. We were very excited! That was yesterday and after another careful look that are definitely no baby crayfish.

What happened?! Do crayfish abandon their eggs? The mother will often eat the eggs if she is under stress, or if they are infertile. It helps to recycle the nutrients for its next breeding attempt. Most species can store sperm for long periods of time, so you may see eggs again in the future.

So the best thing to do right now is to give them an environment with muted light, and provide plenty of caves they can hide in. I was wondering if I should set up his tank similarly to my fiddler tank partial land partial water. I was also wanting to give him my over growth of plants, are there certain kinds he cannot have? And for feeding, how often should I feed him and what?

Thank you for this article! When you say overgrowth of plants, do you mean aquatic plants? And you should feed you crayfish once a day, with treats every other day or so.

The main diet can be composed of sinking shrimp pellets, while it appreciates the addition of frozen foods like worms, and regular offerings of blanched vegetables as treats. They should be able to get most of their nutritional needs from the diet described above, though you may want to add a quarter, or half strength marine iodine to the tank now and then. Fish end up creating an awful mess in the tank, and the dead fish will probably foul the water pretty quickly.

Is there any Benefit to having a full aquarium over a partial water set up? And with enrichment I was meaning activity wise not so much nutritional.

The breeder I am buying from had them full submerged I believe. There is a significant benefit as a larger quantity of water will be far more stable and oxygen rich, than just a small pool for the crayfish. I live in Southwest Washington and gathering information on aqua farming native signal crayfish for commercial purposes; promoting a demand for what some believe to be the crayfish of culinary choice.

I understand the Louisiana crayfish farmers commonly farm rice and crayfish together, although at separate harvesting times during the year. Thank You! I know a few fish farms dedicate ponds to crayfish, but there is nothing on any sort of commercial scale.

I came across this article a while ago, and it gives good information on how to farm Red Claw Crayfish in ponds, which should work with few modifications in North America. Hello, this site is great info! I do have a question also. It would probably mimic the light of the moon, so the fish would still fall asleep with it on. You can try to keep your crayfish well fed, which helps somewhat.

Thank you for the quick response! I guess I just thought it might help them see her coming with the night light on. But it also may help her see the fish better to attack? Most of them did sleep near the bottom at first, but now it seems that they are starting to sleep closer to the top. Except for the platys who continue to test thier fate and sleep on the bottom still. Now I have pertinent info in a file on my laptop.

I so appreciate all this info. My question is… is it possible to purchase a crayfish and it have a bacteria that would be detrimental to goldfish? Is it possible for a crayfish to bring something to the tank? Thanks, Robert. Have a great day. As for the crayfish, I doubt that that it would carry any bacteria with it, though the water from the pet store can often be laden with harmful bacteria and fungus. Never, ever put any of the water from the pet store in an active aquarium.

Usually, fin rot points towards something being wrong with the water. Ammonia and nitrites can both damage a fishes fins, and fin rot will often set in afterwards. Also, if you have a fancy goldfish, it can suffer damage to its fins if the water is very cold, though I doubt it would get cold enough inside of a house — but it could be another culprit depending on where you keep your fish. Sometimes fin rot develops as a secondary infection too.

Were there any other symptoms, like fungus growing on the fish? The loss of fins may have also been from the crayfish. I know I tried an experiment a few years ago where I tried to keep rosy red minnows with a crayfish, and it tore off most of their fins in short order. At least the one I have. I ended up buying a separate 29 gallon tank just for her.

And while some people seem adamant that you can safely keep crayfish with fish, all of my experiences point to it being a bad idea.

I even had a friend who lost an arowana to crayfish, and he was not happy at all about it. And… how do you safely get a cray to let go? Also… my blue lost a claw a couple weeks ago. How long does it take to grow back? Thanks a bunch. Being pinched by a crayfish hurts to a surprising amount, and I always wear gloves when handling mine.

Usually, when it pinches onto to something, I just lightly shake it off. It will generally let go pretty quickly, though there have been times where I have to gently pry it off my gloves. But as long as you approach it from behind, you can usually grab it with no issues. I sometimes put one hand in front of it to distract it, and then reach behind it with my other hand.

As for the claw, it usually takes a few molts to grow back to its original size. But you should see a small claw by the end of its next molt. And I saw somewhere that peas should be blanched as well as peeled… do all veggies need to be blanched?

Your website makes if very easy for me to get answers soon. Gives me the feeling of being capable to giving my Blue what he needs and understanding the care he needs. They will often hide any excess food, and it will start to rot, which leads to the water becoming fouled. So make sure you search all of the caves during weekly cleanings, and remove any extra food.

As for blanching, the process of boiling them for a short period of time removes any microorganisms that may be on the vegetables, and also makes them more tender for the fish to eat. And in cases like zucchini or cucumber, it will also help them to sink, rather than have them floating around in your aquarium. Though they do take a little longer to blanch than other veggies. And there are no strange questions — especially with crayfish. Hi Robert, Can crays tolerate water temperature changes well or do I have to be careful in adjusting the temperature with my crayfish like I do with my fish?

Water temperature changes should be kept to a minimum if at all possible. If the change is too fast it can leave them stressed, and more vunerable to becoming ill. And a very sudden change, will usually kill them outright, and studies have shown that any significant temperature change usually greater than 10 degrees will kill them in a matter of hours. How probable is drowning for a cray? Theoretically they can drown, but it would have to be a long power outage, and a small aquarium.

They have very high oxygen requirements, which is why you need to have an air stone or filter to aerate the water. When the power goes out, the filter will turn off, and oxygen will slowly deplete. If it looks like it will be great than a few hours, I would definitely recommend placing them in an environment where they can get out of the water. Another question, Robert: Are there advantages to putting crays in distilled water or jug drinking water? There are very significant disadvantages to using distilled water for a crayfish, as the water is soft and crayfish need hard water.

Also, it would very likely have trouble with molting, since it would probably develop a calcium deficiency. So always stick to using treated tap or well water. I add crushed oyster shell to my tank now and then, helps them with molting. He has become a lot more submissive when I reach for him. My blue female? I think she actually looks forward to me sticking my hand in the tank cuz she comes at me every time.

Thanks for all your info Robert. AND do they munch eat like eating a corn on the cob, or do they stick a whole piece of food in their mouth and then chew? I smile wondering just how strange a question I can come up with! Unpeeled is fine, although sometimes they may leave a little ring for you to take out of the tank.

But usually they will eat it all. And they tend to tear chunks out of the vegetables, without much in the way of chewing, though it almost looks like they do when they use their maxillipeds the little graspers in front of their mouth.

Hi Robert: Me again — How acute are their sight, smell, and hearing? Another smile has hit my lips! Their ears are very simple though, and mainly exist to detect vibrations in the water. The small antennules above the large antenna are used for smelling, and are used to find mates, and detect predators, while other sensors on their legs are used to detect chemicals in the water mainly food related signatures. So I would hazard a guess that their sense of smell is exceptionally good.

This is great info. I never would have guessed they had sensors on their legs. I was just wondering if mine could detect when I put something in the tank for him to eat.

He always seems to start hunting around shortly afterwards. And I was wondering if they detected vibrations as I always call his name pretty loudly before I put his food in. My last cray was a little more adventuresome. I, personally, would never recommend clipping. The only thing you can do in this situation is rehome either the crayfish or the goldfish. Until you can do that though, you could also put a divider in the tank to keep the seperated.

Robert, I guess everyone else has their questions answered, as I seem to get more questions! I was cleaning out the tank and found the cave a little slimy so I scrubbed it clean.

Afterwards I started wondering if the slickness is a good thing for my cray. What do you suggest? To clean or not to clean… that is the question. Just avoid using untreated tap water or anything else that could affect your aquarium while cleaning it though. I never associated using untreated water to clean as detrimental to my crayfish. While it would probably only be added to the aquarium in tiny quantities, I still tend to err on the side of caution.

I like to be over-cautious as well…. Great info Robert. I really appreciate all this stuff. My brown cray fish had babies a few weeks ago and we woke up today and she has died. I have a very small tank. Under a 5gallon so please tell me what can i do to keep them alive. Any advice is so appreciated.

I will change the water today. Im scared it was the water quality or perhaps the tank got too small? I wish i knew why she died. It will be tough to keep them alive. While size is a bit of an issue, the bigger problem is the rampant cannibalism that will occur. As they grow, they will continually eat each other. But you can try to give them as many hiding places as possible, and keep on top of water changes. If a Florida brown crayfish mates with an electric blue crayfish, what color will the babies be?

Will they be a mixture? Hey Robert, my blue cray has a white fur like something on her face and claws. Has had it for at least a couple months. Should I be worried? Do you have any pictures? If you can e-mail me at admin aquariumtidings. This is a good article about crayfish. But the main things our freshwater crays seem to love are earthworms and, of course, fish.

All of our crayfish were caught in our presedimentation basin for a water treatment plant or raised from babies. We also have an enormous population of minnows in the basin, and many get past the pumps and make it into the water plant filters. So we keep quite a few in with the crayfish. The crayfish love to eat the minnows when they can catch them, but the minnows are quite adept at avoiding being caught.

Often, minnows are killed as they pass through the pumps feeding the plant. We scoop them out of the filters and feed them to the crayfish. But I never seem to see earthworms night crawlers, or red wigglers, etc. They go nuts for them. We have to shoo them away when vacuuming the tank gravel or sand in the aquaria to avoid injuring them.

They mate frequently, but no eggs are ever produced. I believe this is because the species we have need to be kept very cold simulating winter here , and then produce eggs when the water warms up in the spring.

We could try chilling the water for a few months, and then letting it warm up to simulate this, but have not tried that. But we all grew so attached to them that the tank ended up being a crayfish tank.

My only fear would be that the crayfish would hide the earthworms for a snack later, and something that size would really do a number on the water quality.

Have you found any hoards of earthworms when you clean your aquarium? My electric blue lobster is starting to act weird.

What is wrong with him? Mine would often climb the air hose line, or the fake plants, in an effort to escape their aquarium. They tend to be very curious animals, and enjoy exploring their aquarium. During one of my ill fated attempts at keeping crayfish and fish together, mine would spend much of his day at the top of the plants, trying to catch fish as they swam by. It was his way of letting me know that something was wrong with the filter.

My electric blue is on his side and not moving even his tail is curled up but about 30 minutes ago he was running around the tank like normal. It could be molting. I would give it some time and see what happens. It just molted for the second time this month about t days to a week ago. Story 1 I have an electric blue female lobster and a white male lobster.

The male was so aggressive when I first bought them that he accidentally lopped off both pinchers and feeding claws plus 6 out of 8 legs from my female blue during breeding. She was a pitiful mess. I increased the calcium level in the tank, made sure I put sinking pellets in a pile in front of her she had nothing to hold her food with , and hoped for the best. After two molts she had all her legs and pinchers back, and was considerably larger than the male.