Stocking Question

I don't really have any experience with angels so I honestly can't help you there, I've just heard they can be fairly aggressive? But...Blue crayfish (i'm assuming p. alleni?) are great! The only issue with them is once they get bigger, you can probably expect to lose a few smaller fish here and there (could potentially make short work of small tetras) but it seems that most (myself included) like them enough to overlook this as long as its not too frequent. Some crays never touch a single fish in the tank and some become voracious predators that attack and take down fish you might originally think were big enough to fend for themselves. It really depends on the individual cray. Fish that are too big can also attack small crays, but unless you get a tiny juvenile mixed with large adult angles or rams... I doubt you'll have that problem in your suggested stock. My experience falls somewhere in the middle, closer to the "the smart fish learn to stay out of the way and everything's ok" scenerio with only a few minor mishaps. I'm guessing if the cray is fairly small to start and there are plenty of hiding spots, he'll probably be ok with those tankmates as long as they aren't much smaller than it or slow moving. They're fairly hardy and do a good job of scavenging the bottom of the tank. They will eat anything. I feed mine various bottom feeder pellets as well as algae wafers to make sure they get enough vegetable matter in their diet. Diets consisting of too much protein have been blamed for pre-mature molting problems. Kind of a long response but I figured I would tell ya what I know. Good luck!

Yea, they're commonly referred to as "blue lobsters" or "electric blue lobsters"... pet stores have a bad habit of that, I would assume they should know better. They're freshwater crayfish. The P. Alleni are from Florida and are sometimes mis-labled as "Australian blue crayfish" (Cherax quadricarinatus) as my first one about 4 years ago was. They reproduce sexually and females can hold a male's sperm packet for an extended period of time and then use it later on when she feels it is a safe time to lay the eggs or "berry". There is usually a lot of competition and cannibalism among the juveniles. The size difference could be from larger ones taking most of the food and molting more. They molt more frequently when they're younger and having a better diet will aid this. Without proper nutrition, some of the smaller ones might not be molting as often or possibly be having issues with the molting process. I would guess that on their own without competition they would eventually catch up in size. Don't worry about asking questions, I'm still asking people lots of questions about these critters. I'm currently attempting to breed a pair.

I wouldn't want Angels in with Tetras that are small, such as neons, cardinals, or smaller. I heard someone at the lfs the other day telling the lady that their Angels ate the eyes off their Neons.

Made me sick to hear that.

You would still have a TON of options to replace the neons. Rummynose's and lemon tetras fit well

blue lobsters + fish= no (if u havent decided that yet)
lobsters get big and will kill the fish. try this stocking for a 40
1 angel
2 blue rams
5 lemon or rummynose tetras (didnt read jpaps post till after i put them :look
6 corydoras

enjoy! what kind of tank set-up is it, planted(fake or real), biotope?

For a 40 gal you could go with 8-10 tetras (anything except mainly neons), 8 corys, and an angel pair. Otherwise, a single angel or even a blue ram pair would work.